Burn With You
by Trinity23Rose
Summary: Sara takes her sister's place on the 100's ship. She keeps her distance, so no one will notice she's actually 24. Then she's captured and imprisoned in Mount Weather where she unexpectedly falls for the leader's son. The question is: does he deserve her affections?
1. Chapter 1

**Description:** Sara takes her sister's place on the 100's ship. She keeps her distance, so no one will notice she's actually 24. Then she's captured and imprisoned in Mount Weather where she unexpectedly falls for the leader's son. The question is: does he deserve her affections?

 **AN:** I do realize that there was not such a thing as having siblings on the Ark, but this story is AU, so I don't see a problem to why I couldn't allow it:P

* * *

 **Part 01**

Sara Matthew's life was never easy and it was actually getting harder and harder the older she was getting. She'd already lost her parents as they'd been both floated many years ago. Whereas she remembered her mother, she couldn't say the same thing about her father who died when she was four. All she had left now was her sister, Lily. The very same sister who was arrested shortly before her eighteenth birthday. Naturally, Sara was faced with a dilemma of how to help her. The times were hard and more and more people were being floated for even the most minor crimes. Sara had no doubt in her mind that soon enough she would also lose Lily and then she would be truly left all alone. There was only one way out of the situation and even that might not work. Still, Sara needed to try, so she mentally prepared herself for going to see Vice Chancellor Rhodes. He was one of the most ruthless men on the whole Ark, but there were rumors going around that he was willing to do someone a favor with the right incentive. Sara was pretty much sure of what that incentive would have to be, but it wasn't like she had any other choice. When it came down to her body and her sister, the choice was simple. She could get over having sex with someone she didn't particularly like, but she would never get over Lily's death.

In the end Sara actually received more than she bargained for. She found out that the Ark was sending a ship with a hundred young criminals to the ground to see if it was survivable there. Rhodes had little hope for the mission as he admitted that he'd voted against it, but in the end Chancellor Jaha decided it was for the best. Sara was truly terrified when she heard that. She couldn't possibly let Lily take the trip down to earth as they had no idea what was waiting down there. It could be a brave new world, one in which they could finally start over, but more probable scenario was that the 100 would drop dead the moment they stepped out of the ship, simply being killed by the radiation poisoning.

And that was how Sara found herself on the ship heading towards the ground. She only had a few brief seconds with her sister before Rhodes sneaked her onboard and made the switch. She wished she could've had more, but at least Lily was alive. At least she was safe. Well, as safe as anyone could be on the Ark. Still, right now it seemed better than being sent to the ground, Sara decided. When her and Lily's mother died, Sara had promised to look after her sister and to do everything that was in her power to keep her alive. She'd sooner die than break that promise and she was pretty sure that those ominous words were coming true right now.

Only then they actually landed and no radiation killed them. In fact, they survived the first few days and Sara was both at awe with the world she got to see and scared that her deception would eventually come out. She didn't look below eighteen years old and it was getting harder to hide her true age. She did her best though. She stayed aside, kept herself away from any trouble or dispute. There were times when she really wanted to say something, to plant some ideas in those teenagers' head, but in the end she knew that if they realized she was an adult, they would see her as a threat and she was even scared to think what they would do with that. Maybe it wasn't right to just play an innocent by-stander, to be silent when she saw the kids were making a mistake, but again, she was supposed to think like them, she was supposed to be stupid and angry just like a teenager. She spent most of her days inside the ship or just walking around and picking up wood for a fire. She tried to be useful, but in the same time she was doing her best to actually stay in the shadows. She'd already received a few suspicious glances and she was scared that it was only a matter of time before she would be accused of being a spy of the Council. Only then again, when they actually contacted the Ark and come to a mutual understanding, it was obvious that she wasn't one. And she got to talk to her sister, the short conversation being worth it all, Sara decided when seeing that Lily was healthy and safe. Maybe with a little bit more luck, they would eventually reunite and Sara wouldn't have to be afraid of exposing herself once the adults came down, too.

It was then that they heard the Grounders were coming to kill them all and the real trouble started. They were all alone, didn't have enough weapons and their only chance at survival was to lock themselves up in the ship they'd come down to earth in and blow the fuel that was left. The plan was either brilliant or crazy, Sara couldn't decide, but she obediently stayed inside, just trying to survive in hiding long enough to see her sister again. She was sure that Lily and the others were coming and then she would finally find herself in the company that was more suited for her, she decided.

She didn't foresee strange, masked men appearing on the site once all the Grounders were burnt alive though. The last thing she remembered was falling down as she suddenly felt dizzy and sleepy.

* * *

She woke up in a white room and after a brief moment of panic, she forced herself to calm down. She was actually clean and had a fresh pair of clothes on her. She was hooked up to an IV, so whoever had taken her and the rest, they didn't want them dead. If they did, they wouldn't go to so much trouble, they would simply put them into a cell or kill them on the spot. With that in her mind, Sara got out of the bed and looked out the small window in the door. She stilled when seeing the board informing her that she was in Mount Weather Quarantine Ward.

All this time they thought Mount Weather was empty, that it was just a bunker they could use as a shelter during the upcoming winter. Now it turned out that there were actually people inside, people who'd survived the war. It seemed incomprehensible to Sara that they'd survived underground for so long. Why were they still living there? She wondered. Why hadn't they just built a town outside? They surely had enough technology at their disposal, so they didn't have to be afraid of the Grounders like the 100 had to.

Sara's head seemed to explode from all the questions she wanted to get to know the answers to. She was curious of everything around her, curious of those mysterious people. It kind of bothered her that they hadn't come for them earlier, that they hadn't helped them defeat the Grounders, but she couldn't really hold it against them, could she? Maybe they were afraid. Maybe they didn't know the 100 were there. But why was she locked up now? Could it be possible that she was affected by the radiation poisoning if she was in the quarantine ward? Then again, she would've had some symptoms by now, wouldn't she? She started counting the days she'd spent on the ground so far. Day twenty one would be the day past which she wouldn't have to worry about radiation anymore. Was it that far along already?

Her thoughts were interrupted by a woman dressed in a survival suit. Soon, she unsealed the door and said, "Come with me."

* * *

Cage Wallace didn't think of the Grounders as people anymore. He couldn't. If he stopped for a moment and start thinking about the issue at hand, he might simply not like the conclusions he would reach. The Grounders were vicious, they were capable of the worst deeds. Far worse than the Mountain Men as the people living in Mount Weather were called that way by them. The Grounders killed each other for the most minor of offences, they betrayed each other and their punishments were barbaric. It simply suited those who couldn't come out of the bunker to use the Grounders like animals, to lock them in cages and harvest their blood to help themselves heal. It wasn't fair that those who could live outside were acting the way they were, it wasn't fair that they had the chance to go anywhere they wanted and they chose to behave like savages, Cage thought bitterly. It truly wasn't fair that he and his own people could never really leave. Sometimes he wondered when they would meet their end. They couldn't possibly live in the confinement forever, could they? Even the world's strongest hatch wouldn't withhold hundreds of years. Someday the metal would corrode, the hinges would loosen and they would run out of their resources. Someday they would all die. Unless they would find a way to survive. Unless they would find a way to beat the radiation poisoning. That was why Cage didn't let himself feel guilty for what he and the people working under him were doing. There was simply no other choice. The world wasn't black and white. Also, if they wanted to keep the Grounders away, if they wanted them to fear the Mountain Men, they had to go to some unorthodox measures like the one Cage was seeing to completion right now when creating a new reaper. They needed to replace those that were lost.

"Ok, we're done here," he said to the guard as he handed him back the syringe, casting one last glance at the Grounder strapped down to a gurney. That one was unusually strong, Cage thought with admiration, he would make for a fantastic reaper.

"The Sky Kids are in the dining hall right now," the guard informed Cage. "They were all released from the quarantine today, sir."

"Thank you for the information." Cage nodded and directed himself to the dining chambers. It could be interesting. And what was even more interesting was the fact that the Sky People were apparently immune to the radiation on a completely different level than the Grounders were. Sometimes the Grounders were born with a certain deformation to their organs or their bodies. The Sky People all looked just like the Mountain Men with the exception that the radiation did not affect them at all.

* * *

Sara was bored. She couldn't really believe it, but she was. The woman who got her out of the confinement, Lorelei, patiently answered every single question. Sara found it remarkable that the Sky People and the Mountain Men had so much in common. They were both raised and living in confinement, unable to reach the ground. Well, now Sky People finally managed to achieve that, so it kind of bothered Sara what the people from Mount Weather might want to do to them. They might've just welcomed them without any agenda as well. Just a moment before she'd listened to a speech made by the president, Dante Wallace, and he'd welcomed them warmly, saying that they could stay and contribute to the work flow in Mount Weather in exchange for a place to live and food. It sounded pretty good to Sara. She was sick of living in the forest, of having almost no roof over her head when not counting the ship, of having to clean herself in the spring and relieve in the woods. She was especially comfortable in Mount Weather when finally being clean enough, having taken an actual hot shower and having a meal which didn't consist of meat fried over fire. It was heaven to her, but she knew she still needed to pay attention. She couldn't just trust those strangers right away. As she thought about it some more, she was sure that they had their own agenda in taking them in. They probably wanted to add the Sky People to their gene pool, therefore eventually making it possible for them to get out of the bunker and breath the fresh air without the fear of radiation. Still, the fact that they might one day ask her to become a mother when mating with one of them did not come as a shock to Sara. Even when she realized that when considering her real age, they might ask her soon. Back on the Ark and before they were facing the overpopulation problem, people had actually been forced to procreate, so the species would survive. It wasn't a big deal, it was just life and the harsh reality of it.

So now, having thought everything through and having eaten a delicious chicken and a salad and actually having something warm to drink for a change, Sara just felt bored. Maybe it was the fatigue catching up with her, the excitement of the day, the adrenaline slowly wearing out. Or maybe she was just tired after everything she'd been through outside. She finally felt safe and her body didn't have to be constantly on alert. She could finally rest. It pained her that her people, the rest of the 100, were chatting merely by the table, eating something that looked like chocolate cake and having no care in the world about her. She didn't even feel like getting up from her seat to grab a plate of that dessert or to talk to them for that matter. She'd been alienating herself for way too long for that. She felt strangely numb out of the sudden, her good mood evaporating. She felt lonely, she figured. She really wanted to see her sister, but when she'd asked Lorelei earlier about another ship that might've come down, she'd met with a negative answer. There apparently had been no ship landing anywhere near them those last few days.

In that moment Sara decided that she would just go back to the room the 100 got and she would simply lie down, trying to fall asleep in order to stop feeling so down. The moment she stood up, Cage Wallace entered the dining hall, realizing that he was late. It wasn't a big deal since he was almost always late, usually being detained by some matter that needed his urgent attention. His father was the president, but conveniently for him, it was Cage who usually did the dirty work for Dante. Go figure, he thought with a sigh and looked around, taking in the sight of the newcomers. And then his eyes actually spotted a woman he'd never seen before. She didn't look like she belonged anywhere, which was weird. She clearly wasn't a teenager like the rest of the kids and she wasn't one of the Mountain Men either. Added to that, she was unusually beautiful, Cage decided. In fact, she might've been just the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen and he wasn't exaggerating since there was such a small number of available women in the hatch to choose from.

"You certainly look like you don't belong here," he said when making his way to her.

At first Sara didn't realize that someone was talking to her and once she finally did and looked up at the man, she came to a sudden stop. So far she'd seen kids and teenagers, she'd seen old men and men who were apparently taken since they were enjoying dinner with their families, then there were the guards, but none of them actually attracted Sara's attention. This one standing right there in front of her and talking to her, did. He intrigued her, actually. When growing up on the Ark Sara had never seen a man dressed up in such an impeccable suit and she'd very rarely seen any kind of a suit. Now she was standing right next to a man who not only wore one, but looked dashing in it. The neatly combed hair and face smooth and free of any kind of a stubble made her feel even more attracted to him. And he had a peculiar scar on his upper lip that she actually caught herself staring at.

And that was when she realized that she was, indeed, staring. She felt herself blushing and cursed silently that she was acting so silly.

"Well, it's because I don't, really," she finally spoke, referring to what he pointed out.

"I'm Cage. Cage Wallace," he introduced himself when reaching his hand to her.

"Sara Matthews," she answered and shook his hand, feeling even hotter as she touched him.

"So, Sara," he started when sending her a charming smile, "what's your story?"

"I don't think I feel like talking about it. I'm not in a particularly good mood right now and what I've been through only makes everything worse," she answered.

"Have you tried the cake?" he asked and when she shot him a questioning look, he added, "it's apparently the best thing we're serving here and chocolate always make you feel better."

Sara actually smiled and was close to telling him that he'd already achieved that, but chose against it. Maybe she'd been away from grown-up men for way too long, she wondered. She was really sick of teenagers. "I'm sure the cake's gone by now, but thanks," she eventually just said.

"They always save me a piece," Cage insisted. "I'll be happy to give it to you."

"I knew your name sounded familiar. You're the president's son, aren't you?" Sara asked when she connected the dots. He did say his name was Wallace and why they would save cake for just anybody?

"Well, yes, I am," he admitted rather reluctantly, "but believe me, it doesn't really matter. Why don't you take that chair over there and I'll be right back with the cake?"

She couldn't argue. Suddenly the perspective of going to her room and trying to fall asleep didn't appeal to her at all. She was finally talking to someone older than she was and he was a man, so she really liked that. Cage seemed to be in his early thirties, but she didn't mind. It was a refreshment, really.

In the end Sara walked towards the two chairs that stood in the corner of the room, away from most of the crowd and she waited. Soon enough, Cage not only brought cake but also two glasses of something that made her think of wine. Not that she'd tasted any. They'd never really had any wine on the Ark, but she'd read about it.

"Is this what I think it is?" she asked when pointing the glass.

Cage smiled when he handed it to her. "Oh, yes, red wine, just for you. Have you ever tasted it?"

"Honestly? No."

"Well, then it's my pleasure."

Sara couldn't really decide which was better: cake, wine or the presence of a charming man. Although about a few minutes later when she actually felt getting warm again, she decided that it was definitely the man.

"So, if you're not a teenager, how did you get on the ship in the first place?" he asked when watching her closely.

"I did it to protect my sister," she simply answered. "Just please, don't say anything to anyone. I've managed to keep it a secret so far."

Cage actually raised his eyebrows at that. "I didn't know these kids can be _that_ stupid as not to notice."

"Well, with all that was going on in our camp and the dirt that seemed to be everywhere no matter how much time you spent cleaning yourself up in a spring… let's just say, they didn't. I wasn't spending my time with them at all, so there you have another reason."

"I bet you were bored out of your mind. We should've brought you in sooner," Cage spoke.

"What didn't you?" she asked in curiosity.

"We were afraid of the radiation," he simply answered. "If you got sick, you would endanger all of us."

"So you've waited twenty one days," Sara suddenly realized.

"Precisely. But we still put you into quarantine first."

"Can you honestly answer one question?" she then asked.

"Depends on the question," he said and she couldn't tell if he was joking or if he was actually serious.

In the end, she asked anyway, "What are you planning to do with us? The fact that we seem to be immune to the radiation must be very convenient to you. Do you want to add us to your gene pool?"

"And what if we do?" he answered with a question, looking for her reaction.

"Well, nothing," she simply said when shrugging. "Believe me, I understand, but those kids out there, they might not."

"That's probably why we're not telling them about our plans just yet. They're just kids."

"Clarke actually wanted to escape today," Sara revealed. "She almost killed all of you, but one of our own, Jasper, convinced her not to do that."

"I'm glad he did," Cage admitted when leaning back in his seat and sipping the rest of his wine. "You know what? You can be a valuable asset to us," he suddenly said. "You don't seem to belong completely to your people, therefore you're the perfect link between them and us."

"Well, they won't listen to me if that's what you're suggesting," Sara said. "I haven't really been socializing with them."

"I know, but maybe it's time to tell them who you really are and how old you are," Cage insisted when looking her in the eye. "We could really help each other, Sara." There was something ominous in his eyes when he said that and she didn't really know what to make of that. Added to that, his eyes seemed to be haunted by something. Suddenly, Sara felt cold dread in her stomach. She didn't really know those people and appearances could be deceiving. She didn't really believe that this man would hurt her, but she was sure there were things happening in the bunker the Mountain Men didn't want the 100 to know. Only hadn't there been things to hide back on the Ark? Sara started wondering when remembering all those unnecessary floatings. Well, maybe in the eyes of the Council they were necessary since they were facing the overpopulation problem, but it didn't justify killing innocent people. Sara was in a bit of a pickle. She didn't really feel like she belonged to her people since they'd caused her so much pain. They'd taken her father, then her mother and in the end they'd tried to take her sister, too. And what had happened then? Sara had been forced to entertain Chancellor Rhodes only so she could take her sister's spot on the ship. Was that how real family should act? She started wondering and her hand actually clenched on the chair's arm. She hated the Sky People, she realized. But she didn't hate the 100 since they were just like her. Still, she hadn't made the effort to truly bond with them either. Cage was right, she should just tell them the truth. She should tell them that she was twenty four and not eighteen.

"Are you all right?" Cage asked when seeing the change in her expression.

"I'm… fine," she finally said and shook her head, trying to get rid of the painful memories. The Mountain Men were highly feared by the Grounders, that was true and Sara couldn't really know what one did to another and which ones started fighting first, but what she was pretty sure of was that in Mount Weather they didn't just kill people for minor misdemeanors.

"Have you ever faced an overpopulation problem here?" she suddenly asked, wondering about that.

"The what now?" Cage actually chuckled at that. "My, my, you really are getting straight to the point, aren't you? And you do think of some serious problems instead of endangering the life of every single person here just because you want an out," he pointed out, clearly meaning Clarke.

"Also, when I ask a question, I want a straight answer," Sara pointed out.

"No, we've never had any problem of the kind," Cage simply said.

"How so?" She actually frowned at that.

"Look around," he spread his arms, "we have chocolate, wine, we grow our own vegetable and have our own breeding, why wouldn't we have birth control?"

"Oh," escaped Sara's lips. "Ok, that explains it," she admitted and immediately hated all the ideas that one answer put into her head. She'd been so scared of any possible pregnancy back on the ship that it'd nearly taken the whole fun of sex. They'd had their own ways of preventing the impregnation, usually improvising with makeshift condoms, but needless to say, those weren't very effective.

* * *

When all the kids and Sara were back at their room after diner, the woman actually took a deep breath and revealed to them her real age and the reason to why she was on earth instead of her sister. They were surprised and as she could easily predict, after she told them that she could make friends among the Mountain Men and find out about certain things, most of the kids were unhappy. They immediately assumed that she would eventually betray them and some even dared say that she'd been a spy from the Mount Weather from the very beginning, but that was just ridiculous as Clarke said since there was a problem with the radiation.

"Why should we listen to you?!" they asked her. "Why should we trust you now? You were lying to us all that time and suddenly, just because you're older, you've got to tell us what to do?!"

"No, I'm not saying that," Sara protested. "And you should know why I kept quiet. Ever since we landed I've seen nothing but cruelty among you. It was enough. I didn't want to be hung on a tree just because someone thought I could be a spy." There was silence for a moment as the rest was processing those words, so Sara just went on, "Listen, I'm not asking you to abandon your own people. I'm just asking you to stop being so antagonistic to the people here. They got to us late, but they waited those twenty one days for a reason and here we can finally be safe. We do not have to worry about food or bed for the night. All they ask from us in return is a little bit of work."

"And they would eventually want us to stay here and have kids with them, won't they?" one of the girls asked.

"Well, yes, I admit that they might do that," Sara agreed, "but wouldn't our people do the same if they came down here? We might've been facing the overpopulation problem when we were living in the space, but here on earth we can actually have the opposite problem. So many of us already died, so many on the Ark died as well."

"I think she has a point," Jasper spoke. "We should keep our eyes open, but we should also stop attacking those people. So far they haven't done anything wrong."

"Oh, so you'll actually listen to her?" Clarke couldn't believe her friend. "She'd been making googly eyes at the president junior even since he came into the room tonight!"

"Well, if she were making them at the guys here when being so much older than we are, I would be seriously disturbed," Harper pointed out and they all actually started laughing. All except Sara. _Teenagers,_ she simply thought before rolling her eyes.

"I'm asking you to stop verbally attacking everyone here," she repeated once more. "Instead, you just keep your eyes open for anything suspicious."

"Do what you want, but I'm going to find a way home!" Clarke decided, determined to escape and in the end there was nothing Sara could do about it.

"Have you considered actually asking them to let you go?" she eventually asked the blonde.

"Well, yeah, I did."

"After you tried to escape, so that is why they didn't comply," Sara tried once again.

"They told me that it wasn't safe out there and that all my friends were dead. They also said that there was no ship coming from the skies. And they had to come!" Clarke suddenly raised her voice and actually started to shake. "They had to make it! They have to be out there somewhere!"

"What if they're really not?" Sara asked the perfect question. "Clarke, I want them to be there as much as you do. My sister… I came down here to safe her and if in fact that actually sentenced her to die…" Sara stopped for a moment, closing her eyes and shaking her head. She couldn't start crying now. "I don't know what I'll do, but for now, for now we have this place. We should be happy about it. We should try to work with the people in here. Haven't we learnt anything by now? We're already at war with the Grounders. We can't afford to be at war with the people here, too."

"Listen, I'm sorry about your sister, I really am. I know how it is to lose someone and believe me, I'm pissed at everybody in the Council, too," Clarke then said. "They killed my dad and my mother actually gave him up. But I want to get out of here to find Finn and Bellamy."

"What if they're dead, Clarke?" Sara just asked. "You saw that explosion. They couldn't have…"

"I choose to believe," Clarke just said and made her way to her bed.

Sara could only sigh and in the end she just got into her own bed. Surprisingly enough, after everything she'd been through that day, she fell asleep almost immediately. She didn't think she would be able to, after all, but she did. Although she did dream of a pair of brown eyes and a scar on a man's lip…

* * *

 **AN:** Vice Chancellor Rhodes is a character from the 100 books. I felt like it wouldn't be right to use Kane. He was many things on the Ark, but he would never ask a woman to trade sex for information, his moral code wouldn't let him as he was so adamant on following the law.


	2. Chapter 2

**Part 02**

The next few days were one big blur to Sara as she was adjusting to living in Mount Weather. The truth was that she'd never before in her life felt so comfortable and happy. Having Lily near her would make things much better, but this was her life now and she couldn't possibly come back to what had been before. All she could do was to go forward and she was actually content with the way things had turned out. She kept on mingling and even though at the beginning Mountain Men weren't very trusting, gradually more and more of them actually got used to yet another adult in the place. And then there was Cage. Sara truly didn't know what that thing between them was. The more she saw him, the faster her heart was beating and she kept catching herself on staring into his eyes a little bit too long, of tracing the line of his lips, of watching his lean body from the other side of the room. She hoped he didn't notice her lingering gazes and she tried to pull herself together and to just stop doing it, but it was too late every single time. She seemed to sense him appearing in the room before she even saw him and it both scared and exhilarated her. When she wasn't looking at him, she could feel his eyes set on hers and it only drove her more crazy. She knew that just a few days had passed since she'd met him, but living in such a confined space seemed to fasten things up. There was no outside world, there was only the inside. It was simply inevitable that she saw Cage more than she would if they lived out in the open, even if they dated. Somehow Sara felt more confined in Mount Weather than she'd ever had in the space or maybe it had something to do with the presence of the one man she seemed to react to in a special way. It'd never happened to her before with such intensity and she felt like if they didn't take it to the next level, she would simply explode. She knew it was ridiculous, she tried to tell herself that it'd just been a few days, but she still couldn't help it. She was so distracted that she didn't even notice the disappearance of Clarke and the stealthy conversations a small group of the 100 seemed to be having every free moment. Sara was just living in her own world.

The day one of Jasper's new friends, Maya - Sara thought was her name - was exposed to the radiation, she didn't see Cage anywhere. It kind of bothered her and spoilt her mood as she was so used to talking to him during meals or just spending time with him. It didn't miss her attention that ever since Cage had met her, he'd never been late to a meal and he'd claimed before to always be forgetful about what time it actually was. Well, this was the first day he didn't show up at breakfast and then at lunch and Sara started wondering what he could be doing. It was way past dinner when she finally left the dining room, completely bored as even the people she'd already gotten to know in Mount Weather couldn't take her mind off of Cage for a longer moment. As she was walking through the long and empty corridor, slowly making her way to her room, she finally saw him approaching her from the opposite direction.

"Cage," she said his name when being a little startled by his sudden appearance, but she was also happy. "I haven't seen you today. Is everything all right?" she asked when they met in the midway and her heart fastened up as usual in his presence.

"We had a leakage today," he explained, "but I guess you already know about that."

"Yes, I'm sorry it had to happen to one of your people," she voiced her regret.

"Well, it would never happen to one of yours," he resolutely pointed out. "And one of the Sky Kids, Jasper, actually offered to donate blood and it worked. We managed to save Maya thanks to him."

"I'm glad to hear that," Sara said and smiled. Then they just stood there, looking at each other and she completely forgot about what they were even talking about. All she was aware of was his closeness, the smell which must've been the aftershave invading her senses and his eyes boring straight into hers and then… yes, they actually shifted to her lips.

That day Cage was simply tired following the rules, he was tired of waiting, tired of living locked inside the metal cage that ironically was also his name. He'd just had a very unpleasant conversation with his father and he felt like he had enough of everything. He couldn't possibly do what Dante Wallace told him to for any longer. He also couldn't possibly court Sara even for one more day. He needed to have it all and he needed to have it _now_.

 _"You_ tricked _him into giving her his blood?" Dante was angry when he heard about the whole incident and it didn't take long for him to figure out that the leakage wasn't accidental. He accused Cage of causing it immediately, but of course his son denied it even though they both knew that he'd done it._

 _"Dad, relax, they're both fine now. Dr. Tsing had this theory that with the help of Sky People's blood we would actually be able to walk out into the open again, but it only works for a few minutes. We still don't have a permanent solution."_

 _"Oh, we do have one, but it takes time," Dante disagreed._

 _"Time we might not actually have," Cage argued. "Do you really want to wait for_ a whole new generation _? You know that you'll be long dead by then."_

 _"Cage, if I let you use those kids for experiments, I won't deserve to be able to walk outside, do you understand me?" Dante nearly growled._

 _"We don't need to experiment on them! We've already found a way! If we harvest their bone marrow…" Cage started and it made his father even more furious._

 _"Are you out of your mind?! Those are kids! My answer is no and never expect me to change it." After having said that, Dante just walked away, leaving Cage boiling with rage._

And now Cage was standing right in front of Sara, the woman he'd desired strongly ever since the first moment he'd seen her. There was no one else around them. And he couldn't possibly get the permission from his father to start harvesting the bone marrow. The woman standing right in front of him, the woman wanting him as strongly as he wanted her, was the one thing he could actually have.

"Oh, screw this!" he just said and grabbed her face, bringing her closer to his own and crashing his lips against hers.

At first Sara was just stunned by the sudden change in Cage, by the sudden movement and then the kiss itself. No one had ever kissed her like this, not with such a strong desire which was nearly visceral, primal. His lips were hungry and demanding as he moved them over hers and finally she was able to kiss him back, grabbing his face as well and pulling him even closer until their bodies blended into one, his arms took her into his embrace and his mouth prided hers open, so she could allow him the access of his tongue.

Soon Cage pushed her against the wall and she didn't even feel the pain from her back colliding hard with it, all she could feel was the heat coming off of his body, his kisses hot on her lips, his hands wandering all over her skin, his chest pressed against her own and his pelvis pushing against her pelvis and the hardness there. It all caused her to completely lose herself in the sensations and when she realized that they could just let go without worrying about getting pregnant, she moaned with pleasure and buried her hands into his hair, kissing him with even more fervor. His hand was on her thigh, then he gently rose it up and put around his hip and she released another moan when her core found some friction and in that moment they heard a door opening and merry laughter coming from the dining room.

Sara didn't even manage to check who was walking out of the room and whether they even saw them embracing so passionately because Cage just grasped her hand and pulled her towards the part of the bunker he'd come from before. She felt slightly dizzy as she suddenly found herself running. Dizzy and strangely cold when she lost the feel of his hot body against her own, but she followed him as he led her a long way and eventually pressed his thumb against a scanner next to some door to open it.

As they came inside, Sara realized that she must be in Cage's bedroom. There was a desk in the corner and a couch in another and the next door led into a bedroom where he walked in now, looking at her, making sure she was stil here. As she followed him inside, she spotted a bed and a closet, probably full of his usual suits. There was also a small adjacent bathroom.

"My whole room from the Ark would probably fit in there," she said when pointing the bathroom.

"We have a lot of rooms like that in here, too," Cage answered when closing the door and turning back to her. "But I have privileges."

"And I'm so happy about that right now," Sara answered him with a smile and before she could say something more, he got to her again and started kissing her with the same fervor he'd showed her a moment before in the hall. He was more attentive now though. There was no danger of someone walking in on them, so they could just go all the way. And Sara surrendered to Cage completely, losing herself in his body as they quickly got rid of their clothing. She really liked him wearing all those suits, but she quickly discovered that it meant more layers of fabric and she just wanted him naked right away. She took off his jacket, glad that he wasn't really a fan of ties; then she undid the buttons of his shirt and pulled it out of his pants and finally, after discarding of it, she could get down to his belt. Still, she was constantly interrupted by Cage's kisses and by his ministrations when he was trying to take all of her clothes off in the same time. Also, when he finally stood in front of her completely shirtless, she stopped for a moment, just admiring his chest, running her hands through it, watching as his muscles tensed and his nipples peaked. Then she looked up into his eyes and was completely mesmerized by what she found there. She'd never before seen a man who looked at her this way. It nearly set her on fire as she was burning from the inside. Then he was kissing her again and pushing towards the bed until the back of her knees hit the edge of it and she fell into it. In this position he hovered above her, taking care of the remaining clothes she was still wearing, getting rid of the bra when exposing her breasts to his eyes and then disposing of the lower garment. He came back to kissing, this time his lips trailing down to her cleavage and finally to her breasts, his hands already on her thighs, opening her legs, so he could situate himself between them. She still wasn't completely satisfied since he was only half-naked, so she tried to fumble with his belt, but his head and hands kept getting in the way. Eventually, he helped her out, opening his pants himself and pulling them down his legs, revealing his impressive and erected length.

She reached her hands to his face then and pulled him back to bed, kissing him deeply, licking his upper lip when tracing the peculiar scar he had there. She had yet to ask about that one. Not now though, she decided, being too busy placing her hands on his butt and then moving them to the front to stroke him. He groaned and stopped kissing her, too distracted to be able to focus on the movements of his lips.

"Wait…" he suddenly remembered. "Condom."

"Right," she agreed, both happy that he thought of that and disappointed that she lost the contact with his body above hers when he moved to get the needed item from his bedside drawer. She decided not to think about any other possible females he might've entertained in this place. This was her night and he was hers for now.

This time she spread her legs all on her own and took him into her arms until her body enveloped him completely. They were both too far gone and needed to get down to business, so he just rolled the condom on and positioned himself, entering her with a fast and urgent stroke. Sara opened her mouth widely as she felt him inside her all the way. Finally, she could find some outlet to all that pent-up sexual tension. She thought that she'd felt it the very first time she'd actually seen this man.

He started moving, first slowly but then more urgently, burying himself inside her over and over again, slightly changing the angle of his penetration, so she thought she would simply melt away under his touch. He was driving her crazy, causing her to fall apart underneath him completely. It was like he was taking her to hell with him and then back to heaven. She had him, but she still wanted more, she still wasn't satisfied and needed more of him and she started to wonder if she would ever have enough. This deep and primal need she got to feel for the very first time in her life caused her chest to actually ache. It was such a pleasure, this pain, she thought.

And then he fastened up, grabbing her thighs and diving even deeper inside her, pushing her over the edge fast and effectively. And she felt herself coming, her mouth opening again, her vision nearly going white as she was riding her orgasm along with him who seemed to be coming as well, too far gone to hold on for longer. He actually kissed her when pushing into her one last time and they both fell apart, the kiss getting sloppy, but they didn't care.

When Sara came down from her climax and Cage was just lying there, spent, his face buried in the crook of her neck, his breath hot on her ear, his body stuck to hers; she felt beyond happy. It might've happened fast, she thought, but it seemed to be inevitable somehow. She was falling for this man and it was stronger than her. She couldn't possibly control it, it just happened. The only thing that scared her now was that it might be the kind of love that could actually crash her and burn her until all that was left were ashes. But that was the point, wasn't it?

"It was… amazing," Cage finally spoke breathlessly and forced himself to get off of her in order to take care of the condom. He disappeared in the bathroom and then came back right away. Sara couldn't help but watch his naked body as he made his way back to the bed and got under the covers.

"Yes, it was," she agreed then and snuggled into him comfortably. His arms enveloped her and she was glad that they were on the same page. She would be devastated if he suddenly told her that she should go now. "Maybe it happened too fast, but… I'm glad it did," she admitted.

"Why wait when we can die any moment?" Cage just asked and placed a soft kiss to her lips. A kiss that actually grew and grew until they were making out again. Sara just couldn't get enough of him, of his lips, of his touch and of his body. Soon she felt him hardening again and was happy that there would be a round two.

* * *

It'd been three days since Cage had taken Sara for the first time and every single morning she woke up in his bed and to him staring at her.

"Ok, seriously, you're starting to creep me out," she said instead of good morning. "I'm not that beautiful."

"Have you seen all the women in here?" Cage just asked when remaining in his position, propped up on his elbow. "You're the prettiest one in the whole bunker."

"Oh, so that is why you're sleeping with me. I think I should start looking for someone who could appreciate more of me than what's just skin deep."

"Oh, no, you most definitely can't do that," Cage disagreed when getting closer to her until he was hovering above her and placing a heated kiss to her lips. "You're all mine now."

"That's not true. I don't belong to anyone but myself," she argued when he pulled away, but somehow she felt that he was actually right. She did feel as though she belonged to him and as he belonged to her even when she didn't particularly liked the way it sounded.

"You're killing me, you know that?" Cage actually sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. "Always disagreeing, always being the elusive one. It's driving me completely crazy."

"Well," Sara started when spreading her legs and sliding one up his hip until she heard him gasp, "if it's working, then my job here is done," she teased him and pulled him closer for another kiss. They'd had sex so many times those last three days and yet she still couldn't get enough of it. He was like a drug to her and she was becoming more and more addicted to him. Sometimes she caught herself thinking about the future and it caused her to feel cold dread inside. In the end she always decided to just let it go and live in the moment. Yet that fear was still there and every time she was with Cage, every time she saw him or kissed him and felt him inside her, there was a bitter tone in that pleasure since she knew that their relationship might not actually last. He was still susceptible to the radiation and therefore he couldn't possibly get out of Mount Weather. If her people decided to actually leave in the end, would she be able to leave with them? Or would she become a traitor when choosing the Mountain Men over her own people?

"Hey, are you ok?" Cage suddenly asked when breaking the kiss. "Are you even here with me?" he got worried.

"Yeah… I'm-I'm sorry," she eventually said when looking into his brown eyes. "I was just thinking about this impossible situation. There's so much to figure out."

"Maybe there is, but we don't have to do it all now," he said. "We'll deal with everything as it comes." He placed his hands on each side of her head, cupping her face as he was saying that. "All that matters right now is that we're together, right here and right now. I do care about you, I hope you know that. I have feelings for you and you're not like any other girl. You're special, Sara. I might tease you about loving the way you look and trust me, I do love it, but there's more to it."

"I know," she said, her voice actually growing hoarse and she needed to blink a few times, so she wouldn't break a tear. "And I want you to know that I do care about you, too. That is why it's so hard for me. I'm torn between my people and yours since they just refuse to blend together."

"A couple of the kids actually volunteered yesterday to donate their blood," Cage informed when getting off of Sara and lying next to her on the bed. "So maybe there's some hope for us, after all," he said, but he didn't really believe it himself. The blood donation only worked for a few minutes and then they were at square one. The only way to make it possible for the Mountain Men to leave the hatch was to actually harvest the Sky People's bone marrow and Cage wasn't sure what Sara would think of him if she knew that he was seriously considering doing it. His father was strongly against the whole operation, but what other chance did they have? Eventually, they would all die out if they didn't do something. There were also other things Sara had no idea about like the Grounders being made into reapers by the Mountain Men or the harvest chamber in which they kept those whose blood they were using to heal themselves. How Sara would feel about that if she knew? Cage wondered and in such moments he could truly understand her own fears. He had them, too. Maybe he even had them more often as he was painfully aware of the differences between his people and hers. They were something the authors in all the books usually called star-crossed lovers and Cage should really laugh at the irony. Before he'd met her, he'd never thought he would become so obsessed with a woman, that there would be someone that would cause him to literally ache when he wasn't around her. Yet it was happening to him right now and it was also scaring the hell out of him. He was terrified of the future, too.

"That's great," Sara said and then she actually straddled him when pushing the covers away and running her hands through his chest. "So maybe we _can_ live in peace. Maybe everything will work itself out." She smiled to him and bent down to capture his lips again, licking his scar and then sucking on his lip. She'd asked him about that mark the night before and he'd actually told her that he'd been exposed to such a huge amount of radiation when he'd been a kid that this place had never truly healed despite the doctors' best efforts.

Cage kissed her back, groaning in pleasure at her ministrations and quickly getting aroused until she put the condom in place and took him inside, starting moving over him. Maybe they really should think about getting her on IUD, he thought when holding on to her desperately, enjoying the moment he got to have. All the time they had seemed to be stolen as Cage seemed to only be postponing the inevitable. Clarke had escaped and the Sky People had actually come down to the ground and he wasn't sure what Sara would say if she knew that he lied to her about that, too. He just wanted to forget about all the obstacles that stood in their way. He just wanted to stay buried deep inside her, spent. He wanted to enjoy simply being with her. It was the closest to heaven he would ever get, he was sure of it.

* * *

When Cage and Sara parted after breakfast and after he actually spoke to Lorelei Tsing about possibly harvesting the kids for their bone marrow in secret, his father found him.

"I heard about your relationship," he simply said.

"Dad, whom I'm seeing is really none of your business," Cage tried to brush him off.

"It's everybody's business, son. Don't you see the potential?" Dante actually stopped Cage when placing his hand on his son's arm.

"What do you mean?" Cage asked tentatively, but he thought he already knew the answer and he didn't like it at all.

"You actually asked me for my permission to harvest the kids and you don't see the most obvious solution?" Dante raised his eyebrows. "She wants you, so she's willing. Stop using birth control and get her pregnant. It'll both force her to stay here with you and it'll give our people the chance to walk outside one day."

"She's not cattle, father!" Cage seemed outraged at the very possibility. "I will do nothing against her will."

"Really? You're holding her here against her will. We're holding all of them. Their people are out there, Clarke is out there and if they knew, they wouldn't spend another second in our company and all would be lost."

"Then I suggest you rethink harvesting that bone marrow," Cage just said.

"You're really taken with her, aren't you?" The older Wallace seemed to be surprised. "My, my, it's something I never actually thought I would see."

"Spare me, dad. If you dare touch her or even talk to her, you'll deal with me!" Cage threatened and walked away angrily. Neither he nor his father noticed doctor Tsing behind a corner, listening on their conversation.


	3. Chapter 3

**Part 03**

Doctor Lorelei Tsing didn't like Sara since the younger woman was a threat to the future she'd so carefully planned. It wasn't only about the man they both seemed to care about, although each in a different way, it was also about the future of Tsing's medical experiments. She really wanted to harvest the kids for their bone marrow. She, alike Cage, was impatient and already wanted to offer their people the chance to get out into the open. Right now Sara Matthews seemed to be at the centre of Lorelei's every problem and the doctor decided to just get rid of her. She couldn't possibly let her destroy Cage. She couldn't possibly let the girl poison his mind, soften him and eventually cause him to actually refuse to do any more harm to the Sky People. That was why Lorelei caught Sara during lunch when Cage wasn't around. Recently he'd been back to being late, but unfortunately for Lorelei, it didn't mean that he didn't care about Sara anymore. It simply meant that he was spending too much of his free time with the woman and still had his own job to perform.

"You know, I wouldn't gloat like this if I were you," Lorelei finally said to Sara.

The girl frowned, clearly not understanding what the other woman was implicating. "Excuse me?" she just asked when turning to the doctor who just took the seat right next to her by the table.

"I'm talking about Cage," Tsing said in a casual voice. "It's not a secret that you two are involved, really, but take my advice and don't get used to the situation. Your own people already don't trust you because of your close association with him, so don't take this any further."

"I'm sorry, but I don't see how any of this is your business," Sara pointed out with a frown.

"Oh, believe me, it is. I've known him all my life. He plays with you and then throws you away like a used up rag and eventually, I will be the one he'll choose to carry his child in order to preserve our genes for the next generation. Mark my words," Lorelei finished, quite pleased with her accomplishment since Sara just stared at her in shock. "See you around, Sky Girl." Then the doctor left with a smirk on her face.

* * *

Once Cage met with Sara later that day, he was surprised that she didn't seem happy to see him like she'd used to. In fact, she looked quite bothered by something and he suddenly started to wonder if by any chance she found out the truth about him and the place she was currently living in.

"Is everything all right?" he asked tentatively, already bracing himself as he expected to hear all the accusations that would mark the inevitable end of their relationship. It hurt him more than he was willing to admit and he decided not to focus too much on that ache right now since he discovered that it actually had the power to level him down completely.

"It's nothing," Sara started, but then she decided to just say it anyway. "Well, it's Lorelei… It's not like I feel insecure about anything," she quickly rectified, "but she said something to me that really agitated me. She was simply trying to hurt me."

"What was it?" Cage asked, being on the verge of lashing out. Tsing always seemed like a vindictive bitch to him and he could only hope that she hadn't taken things too far and told Sara something she shouldn't know about. But then again, if Sara knew about the relevant things, she wouldn't be so calm about them now.

"Well, she told me to just drop it since all the people in here know that she's going to be the woman who will carry your child in the future and that you'll just eventually throw me away like, and I quote, used up rag," Sara relayed all she'd heard earlier and folded her arms on her chest, waiting for Cage's reaction. All in all, she was actually very curious about that. "It's not like I'm looking forward to being used as a vessel for impregnation by the way," she then added, letting him know that having children was not on her list of things to do right now.

To her surprise, Cage actually pressed his lips together so hard that they created one thin line, then he clenched his fists and closed his eyes, sighing heavily, clearly being on the very verge of losing his control. Sara had never actually seen him furious and she wondered if it was even something that she wanted to experience.

"Let me make something crystal clear," Cage finally spoke, his voice strained, but he held on in order to say it slowly and coherently. "Doctor Tsing was not right. It is true that there was something between us, but it was strictly casual and even though she has this crazy idea in her head that she'll be the mother of my future child, it's completely delusional. Even if we didn't bring you here," Cage said when meeting Sara's eyes, "I would still never want such a commitment with Tsing, understood? We might want to preserve our genes and survive as a species, but there are certain things I would not do even for the sake of our survival."

Sara was both stunned and strangely fascinated as she was watching his face. There seemed to be this tension, this rage, boiling just beneath the surface and she didn't know what kind of an outlet Cage would eventually find. She knew one thing though, she would never want to be in Lorelei's skin.

And then Cage surprised her yet once again when he grabbed her face and crashed his lips against hers in an even more ardent kiss then the first one they'd shared.

"Does this make it clear?" he asked Sara in a husky voice when he finally broke the kiss to take some air, but his face was still so close that their noses were touching.

"Ah… Aha," was all she managed to utter, feeling her legs going weak, her heart pounding hard in her chest. That man would truly be the end of her, she decided, barely able to form a coherent thought.

"Good," he just said and then he was gone, disappearing behind a corner, leaving her there just propped against the wall, trying to force her legs to move instead of letting them give up under her. It seemed as Cage hadn't just been there a moment before, like he was a ghost who'd haunted her and left her shaky and desperate for him. She would really much prefer him to take her to his bedroom and find the outlet for his angriness there, but apparently he'd chosen to go after Lorelei.

No, Sara really didn't want to be in the woman's skin right now.

* * *

Cage pushed the two wing door to the medical open with such a force that it bounced off the wall and closed right after he strode inside.

Lorelei was just talking to an apprentice of hers and they both raised their startled heads once they heard the commotion.

"OUT!" Cage simply pointed his finger at the young apprentice when roaring. The man was gone in a second. "YOU!" he then screamed when getting to Tsing and suddenly his hands were clenched around her throat, strangling her and he pushed her towards the wall, causing her back to painfully crash against it. "What… the… hell… were… you… thinking?" he said slowly when not letting her go. Lorelei's face turned purple and her hands were desperately struggling with his own that were still over her throat. She opened her mouth and nothing but a desperate wheeze came out.

Cage finally realized that the life was slowly escaping Tsing and he suddenly let go of her, shocked by his own behavior, by what he was apparently capable of. He'd never before in his life been so close to taking someone else's life. When the Grounders didn't make it when he drugged them, it didn't seem like a murder to him somehow, but this did. He was a very passionate man and when he cared about something or someone, he cared to the point of obsession. He was just now facing the danger of losing Sara and for the first time in his life, he was actually scared of his own actions. He knew she would eventually leave him. There was just no other possibility. Their relationship was doomed. Once she found out the whole truth, she would be gone and Cage was really terrified of what he would be capable of then, of what kind of a man he would eventually become once he would lose the woman he was so passionate about.

"If you ever do something like this again," he turned to Lorelei who was now sprawled on the floor, massaging her throat, "you will not want to see me getting even angrier," he threatened and finally left the medical, taking a deep and needed breath once he was left alone. His heart was pounding hard in his chest and he propped his hand against the wall in order to steady himself. He really needed to learn how to control himself.

When Lorelei finally heaved herself up from the floor, her look could kill, she was so furious with Cage. How dare he attack her like that? Even though he'd told her never try to do something similar again, she couldn't just let it go. She prided herself on being the strong woman in Mount Weather, she was a doctor for a God's sake! She was better than all the other bimbos out there and she would not let Cage get away with what he'd done to her.

* * *

Cage didn't come back to Sara right away. Somehow he didn't want her to see him like that. He didn't want her to actually be scared of him. She might like the passion he showed her, but the other side of the coin was a completely different thing and he wasn't sure he could handle the look on her face if she saw him being truly livid. Instead, he chose to walk around a little, pretending to be supervising the work of his people, but in fact he was just cooling off. And he was doing quite all right until his father came into his way.

"Not today," Cage just said, trying to walk right past him, but Dante was persistent.

"I am really disappointed in you, son," he just said in a harsh voice.

"Well, that's a newsflash. Couldn't it wait?" Cage retorted, but then his father's hands were on his shoulders, keeping him strongly in place.

"You listen to me! What you decided to do is despicable and you will go with me to the harvest chamber right now and put an end to this."

"Ok, what are you talking about?" Cage asked, completely taken off track. He hadn't done anything wrong that day when not counting attacking Tsing, but that was in medical and not in the harvest chamber. "What's going on in the harvest chamber?" he then asked.

This time it was Dante who seemed to be surprised. "Doctor Tsing is extracting your girlfriend's bone marrow as we speak," he finally informed and Cage was just gone, speeding down the corridor, straight to the harvest chamber.

He'd spared her life and she paid him back with _this_?! He thought, all his efforts of controlling himself gone. He would not be calm for a while, quite the opposite, he would be furious like he'd never been before. Everything inside of him was screaming, wanting to get out. If he didn't lash out at Tsing, he would explode. He didn't even try to imagine what the doctor must've been doing to Sara's body and if she even used sedation.

The harvest chamber never seemed to be that far away. The way to the lowest level had never taken Cage so long even though he was running there like he was chased by the Devil himself.

Finally, he reached the door and kicked them open, pretty sure that Lorelei had locked herself in and he was right when the lock actually broke.

The scene which played before Cage's eyes was like taken from his worst nightmare. Sara was strapped down to a gurney and she was screaming while Tsing held the drill and was just extracting the marrow.

Cage didn't wait any longer, he just charged Lorelei, dragging her away from Sara until her body collided with the shelves on the wall and she hit her head, falling to the floor, unconscious. That was easy, Cage figured, kind of disappointed with the way things went. Tsing needed to suffer some more and she still would, he decided.

"Sara!" Cage then screamed his girlfriend's name when getting to her and freeing her from the straps with shaky hands. "Sara, are you ok? I'm so sorry. I had no idea…"

She was crying when she finally sat up on the gurney, her whole body trembling and once Cage was done with undoing all the ties, she just looked at him with those tear-stricken, blue eyes.

"I had no idea, I swear," he reassured her when cupping her face gently, terrified of the amount of pain she might've still been in. "I'm so sorry."

"She-she told me it was your idea, but I really didn't want to believe her," Sara finally admitted. "I was screaming and screaming and no one was coming for me," she added with a sob and Cage couldn't take it anymore. He swept her into his arms, closing her in his tight embrace. He wanted nothing more than to protect her from anything that might ever hurt her and it was killing him that he wasn't able to. Not in the end. In the end he might actually be the one who hurt her the most.

"Take her to medical," they heard Dante's voice coming from the door and they let go of each other. "Are you all right?" The Wallace senior turned to Sara once he assessed the situation. By now Cage was carrying her in his arms as he didn't want her to walk all by herself until she would be checked up by another doctor. It was needless to say that Tsing's career in the bunker was over.

* * *

About an hour later Sara was lying in one of the beds in medical, having been thoroughly checked by a doctor and even though she said she was fine, Cage insisted she stayed for a little longer just until her test results came back. For now he was just sitting by her side when holding her hand and plotting his revenge on Tsing in his head.

"So, the theory is that our bone marrow will make you all immune to the radiation?" Sara finally asked.

"I don't want you to think about it now," Cage brushed it off. "I would never use you like this, you need to know that."

"I do know it, but it just makes me think," she started again. "Maybe there's a painless way to extract it?" she asked. "What if we donate and…"

"Stop," Cage just cut in since she was saying exactly what he'd been thinking so hard about for the past few days. The ugly truth was that the donation itself wouldn't be enough since there weren't enough of the Sky People in Mount Weather. It would take all of the bone marrow they had in order to make everyone in the bunker immune and therefore every single kid would have to die.

"But why? If we can help… Cage, just think about it. You could go outside with me."

"But I can't, ok?"

"What are they going to do with the marrow Lorelei already took from me?" Sara suddenly asked, refusing to let it go as he wanted. And all he wanted was to just go back to what they'd had, to just find himself back in the bubble they'd both created. He didn't want to think of the day she would find out everything there was to know about the place she was living in. He wanted to enjoy being with her just a little bit longer.

"Cage, I want you to take it," she suddenly said, squeezing his hand and he looked at her in shock.

"What?" he finally asked, not really believing his own ears. "You can't be serious. She almost killed you."

"You're not even sure that it'll work. Just try it. At least this way it won't go to waste. I want you to," she assured him and he could only stare at her with something in between awe and shock.

In that moment someone cleared his throat and they saw Dante standing in the door.

"Is everything ok? How are you feeling?" he asked when coming over to Sara's bed.

"Much better. Thank you," Sara answered politely.

"Miss Matthews, you can't imagine how sorry I am for what happened. I assure you that such a despicable thing will not take its place here again."

"It's all right. I know it wasn't your fault, Mr. president," Sara said.

"Still, it happened under my roof and I'm truly ashamed for the actions of my own people."

"It's fine, really. I'm fine, so all's well that ends well."

"What happened to Tsing?" Cage just asked his father. "Where is she?"

"She's slowly coming to back in the chamber," Dante answered. "We'll put her in confinement later."

"No, I want to deal with her," Cage voiced his wish and this time Dante didn't try to stop him, he just let him go.

"You know, Miss Matthews, I am really glad that you came into my son's life," Wallace senior suddenly told Sara when they were left alone. "You seem to be the key to my son's humanity and I thank you for that." Then he just left her there thinking about his words.

* * *

Once Cage got into the control room, radiation was let inside the harvest chamber, affecting Lorelei Tsing. She soon started screaming, her face turning red and puffy, then her skin started to break, puss coming out. And she kept on screaming while Cage watched her suffering on the screen. Finally, he was satisfied with the way he dealt with her.

"Take care of her," he gave the command to his people and left the room before he even saw Lorelei release her very last breath.


	4. Chapter 4

**Part 04**

The temptation won out in the end. Cage did take the bone marrow Tsing had already extracted from Sara. He was so convinced that eventually she would leave him that he didn't see the point of denying himself the one other thing he so desperately wanted. He agreed to be the test subject even though he was pretty sure that the marrow would work anyway since the blood donation had for exactly four minutes.

Cage took the shot in medical and then waited the appointed time, but he didn't feel any different. He didn't actually expect any significant change, but he wished he could be sure that he was immune to the radiation before he would leave the hatch. Still, if something did happen to him, he would have enough time to be saved and with Sara by his side he could receive a blood donation immediately and be healed. He hated the very thought of exploiting his girlfriend any further, but he didn't seem to have any other choice in the matter.

"That girl is actually changing you," Cage suddenly heard his father's voice coming from the door and waking him up from his reverie. Since Dante didn't receive anything in answer, he went on, "Cage, my decision is still no when it comes to harvesting the kids, but if by some miracle you manage to find actual volunteers, then I will not have a problem with that."

"Volunteers," Cage just repeated when biting the inside of his lips."Wake up, dad, we do not live in a perfect world and we will never find enough of volunteers to give immunity to all of our people. Even if we could do it for some of them, what the others would do? Do you really want a mutiny down here? Keeping our people in check for so many years wasn't easy. You can't possibility dangle this like a carrot in front of them. What would be your solution, then? A lottery? They would still find a way to be mad about it, they would still call it unfair."

"You do realize that bone marrow regenerates completely, don't you?" Wallace senior just asked.

"Of course I do, but how long will that take?" Cage just asked when standing up and directing himself to the door. He could stay in medical when brooding or speculating with his father or he could actually try walking out of the bunker. He couldn't wait to smell the fresh air and feel its breeze on his skin.

"You have no patience, my son."

"No, I'm just realistic, dad," Cage said when turning around in the door and casting Dante one last look. "Look at what we've done to the Sky People so far. We are lying to them, keeping them inside instead of just letting them go, so they could join their families. And why? Because we need them. How long do you think you can keep up the charade? We're at war with the Grounders and the Sky People are trying to negotiate the peace with them right now. They have a common enemy and it's us. We cannot possibly reach our hand to them now and expect them to forgive us and actually donate their own marrow, so we could join them outside. They'd sooner let the radiation inside Mount Weather to kill us all. That's the truth and it's not even my doing." Cage spread his hands. "So there goes you conscience. You cannot give the order to harvest the kids, but you can do other nearly equally disturbing things." Then Cage just left, for the first time feeling like his dad wasn't better than he was at all. They both did what they had to for their people and there was always a price no matter how minor the violation seemed to be.

* * *

Cage couldn't be happier in this very moment. Maybe he'd never before in his life felt such happiness. Still, it wasn't perfect since it was tainted by the dark vision of the upcoming future. Going outside, breathing the fresh, chilly air deeply into his lungs, finally experiencing what he'd been missing all his life only made his decision easier. The moment Sara turned her back on him, he would overthrow his father and give the order to harvest the kids. Of course he would never sentence her to die as well. She would be let go whereas the rest of her people would die in Mount Weather. It was the only way and there was really no alternative. Cage knew what would happen once the Sky People reunited. Mount Weather was already the enemy and that would never change no matter how hard they tried to rectify the situation. The times were hard and they needed to look after their own people.

Right now Cage was simply savoring the moment, pushing all his worries and doubts about the future aside. He was just standing in the direct sunlight, right in front of Sara and watching her face. He wanted this one more day with her. He wanted to buy himself more time. He knew he was just prolonging the inevitable, but he kept on dragging it for as long as he could. He simply needed this one perfect day in the sun before everything else would just go to hell.

"Ok, it's starting to get uncomfortable," Sara admitted when laughing merrily, causing him to stare even harder. "We'll have a lot of days like this one to come, Cage. You'll still get to look at me in the sunlight."

 _No, we won't_ , he thought, but didn't say it out loud. They wouldn't get many of such days because soon the Grounders and the Sky People would march on Mount Weather and either Cage or his father would have to stop them by releasing the toxic fog or by launching a missile in order to protect themselves and their people. Then there would be war and there would be casualties. Sara's people would be killed off and the Mountain Men would get their bone marrow. They had to be ruthless if they wanted to survive outside. They had to get rid of every single person who could be a direct threat to them.

"You know what?" Sara finally asked when looking at Cage. "You're actually older than I thought. I couldn't see that in the artificial lights of the bunker." She wasn't even lying, but she didn't mean to be rude either. It was just an observation and maybe he would finally stop staring on hearing that, she thought.

He did. The moment was broken and he was actually angry that it happened.

"Is this how you want to play it?" he just teased her.

"Maybe I do," she answered back, laughing at him and then pretending to be running away from him, so he could catch her. "You could also use some tan. Your skin is horribly pale," she pointed out, giggling when he finally caught her and closed in his embrace.

"Have you looked in the mirror recently?" he asked her because obviously all those days she'd already spent in the bunker didn't help her tan either.

"What would you say if we went down to the stream to skinny dip?" she suddenly suggested with sparks dancing in her eyes.

It was tempting, Cage needed to admit that, but in the end his common sense won out. He couldn't be seen further away from the bunker as there could be Grounders out there or people who simply wanted him dead. Or worse, people who were just waiting to capture him and torture for information. And something told him that he wasn't made to withhold torture. He was usually the one torturing others. No, he definitely had too many enemies.

"First of all, it's dangerous since we're still at war with the Grounders," Cage answered slowly, carefully choosing his words. "And second, what about birth control? I thought getting pregnant was the last thing you wanted right now."

"Who said anything about having sex?" she picked up on that.

"If you think I won't touch you when seeing you taking a bath in the stream naked, then you have another thing coming."

"Ok, spoilsport," she sighed, "let's just go back inside."

Cage's good mood evaporated the moment they walked into Mount Weather. It meant that his time with Sara was really coming to an end. Why was it that when one didn't want the time to speed, it did, always playing against them? Well, there was no point in dwelling, Cage decided when bracing himself. He was never a sentimental man. Passionate, yes, which he discovered thanks to the girl accompanying him, but not sentimental. It would all soon be over and he needed to look out for his own people. The Romeo and Juliet thing he had going wasn't worth clouding his judgment. This was real life and he would do what he had to do.

Sara, on the other hand, was just thinking about Dante Wallace's words. The man had told her that she seemed to bring up the humanity in Cage and maybe he was actually right. She saw goodness in Cage and she didn't intend on giving up on him. She intended on holding on to him, on believing in him and showing him the right path. She had this idea in her head that eventually she would be able to convince her people to donate their bone marrow to the Mountain Men and that they would all live in peace. Of course there was still the case of the Mountain Men and the Grounders being at war with each other and if they couldn't negotiate peace, they would have to fight. The Grounders were evil savages anyway since they'd speared Jasper the very first chance they'd gotten, Sara reminded herself. They'd never wanted to live with them peacefully, they'd never wanted to share their land even though there was plenty around to spare. They'd been hostile from the very beginning and therefore she wouldn't feel sorry for them.

* * *

Once Cage and Sara found themselves back in his bedroom that night, he could feel some strange weight in his stomach. It was the kind of a dreadful anticipation for something to happen like a premonition. Something told him that it might be the very last time he was intimate with her and it only caused him to be more attentive to her. He wanted to remember her, her body, her kisses and her gentle touch he so did not deserve. He wanted to preserve the memory, so he had something to reminisce in the future when he would be the lone victor of a bloody war.

Sara seemed to sense the urgency in him, the desperate need he had for her, but she thought it was because of what they'd been through, because they'd actually gotten to enjoy the outside together earlier that day. For the first time Cage was actually slow when making love to her, slow and deliberate. There was not a part of her body that escaped his attention and she rewarded him with the same in return, completely overwhelmed by his ministrations. He was moving inside her so slowly that it was nearly torturous, but amazing in the same time. He seemed to be delaying the moment of their climax until they would both explode or pass out.

Still, once it actually happened and they fell into bed, both just focusing on breathing erratically, both completely drenched and spent, Cage couldn't sleep. Sara dosed off almost immediately when snuggling up to his side and placing her head just above his heart, so she could listen to it beating, but no matter how tired he was, he just couldn't sleep. He _knew_ something bad was going to happen.

* * *

The next morning Cage was detained by the guards right on his way to breakfast. He reluctantly let Sara go alone, promising her that he would join her as soon as the situation, whatever it was, would be resolved. He watched her making her way to the dining room for a moment before he actually turned around and started off towards the command.

"What have we got?" he asked his people.

"It's an army, sir, going straight at us," he received in answer.

"We also believe to have a spy among us, but we cannot tell who and where he is now, sir. Sky People somehow managed to get past our defenses."

"Then look harder and catch them," Cage commanded. "What are you waiting for? And the Sky People can't be that dangerous."

"They're with the Grounders, sir, and somehow they found a way to bring the reapers back."

Cage just sighed heavily, trying to wrap his brain around all that information. He was right, it was truly the end.

"We have reasons to believe that they're capable of opening the main door to the hatch," another man informed him. "They blew up five of our turbines last night."

Cage's hand wandered up to his face to cover it as he took a deep breath, trying to force himself back under control.

"Where's my father? What's his plan?" he eventually asked, hating that he needed to turn to Dante for help.

* * *

Cage didn't show up at breakfast at all and Sara was forced to come back to her room. The moment she entered it though, all the voices she heard were suddenly hushed and the kids were just looking in her direction.

"What is it?" she asked when frowning, not understanding what was happening. "What's wrong? Why are you suddenly so quiet?"

"I think it's time we tell her," Harper said and Monty just nodded. Eventually, Jasper with Maya stood up, ready to talk.

"My people are keeping the Grounders in cages and they harvest their blood once some of us gets radiation poisoning," Maya started explaining.

"What do you mean?" Sara just asked, surprised by that information.

"Mountain Men started the war, Sara," Harper said, "they're the bad guys here. They're turning the Grounders into reapers to build their defense system and they also keep capturing them, so they have a blood supply in case someone gets infected."

"No," Sara just said, her very first reaction being the denial. "No," she just repeated. "This can't be right."

"You were attacked," Monty pointed out.

"Well, yeah, but it was doctor Tsing who attacked me and then I was saved. Cage would never…"

"Why do you think we even have the harvest chamber down there?" Maya asked the perfect question and Sara actually needed to sit down, starting to shake. "I don't like what they're doing. There are people among us who refuse treatments because they know it's wrong," she went on. "My own mother died because she didn't want the donation and I want to help you, guys, get out of here."

"Out of here?" Sara just repeated after them, feeling slightly dazed. There were million things going around inside her head right now, but all of them were connected to Cage. Did he know? Of course he did! How many times were his answers ambiguous? How many times did he disappear to somewhere, busy with work? What work? He was the president's son, after all!

"Cage is the one who supervises the transition of the Grounders into reapers," Sara suddenly heard coming from Maya and she felt sick. She could only lower her head and place her hands on it. She couldn't take it.

"There's more," Monty started.

"Yeah, sure, tell me more! I don't mind!" Sara raised her voice. She was starting to panic and she knew it. The flow of information was just too big. It was too much at once after everything she'd thought she knew. Her world was literally crumbling to pieces around her and there was nothing she could do to stop it. And how much did she want to stop it, to just come back to the day before!

"We broke into their command last night," Jasper divulged, "and they lied to us, Sara. Our people are on the ground. They even set up a camp. Your sister's probably there with them right now."

"What?" Yes, that was definitely too much information, Sara thought, realizing that Cage had kept her in the dark all this time. Was he ever going to tell her? Or was he just planning on keeping her inside forever? What was he afraid of now as she so generously donated her own bone marrow, so he could walk out? It didn't make any sense, she realized as she thought about it some more. How could a ruthless, emotionless person show her so much passion? How could he be cold-hearted and caring in the same time? It wasn't an act when he'd stormed into the harvest chamber the other day to stop Lorelei from killing Sara. It wasn't an act when he'd basically let her know that he'd been falling in love with her once she'd relaid to him what Tsing had said to her earlier. Could he lie? Could a person be _such_ a good liar? Still, why would he? There was no need for lying since Sara herself had already suggested donating the marrow and at first he'd refused.

"I'm so confused. Nothing makes sense anymore," she said out loud when standing up and facing the rest. "They're not bad people."

"They keep us here because they want to use us," Jasper said as he couldn't believe that she could be so blind.

"No," Sara denied when shaking her head. "If so, then why haven't they done anything yet? Why aren't they exploiting us? Why are they just feeding us and letting us live here?"

"They wanted our blood," Jasper pointed out, "and it didn't work. Now they'll take our bone marrow. We need to get out before they kill us all!"

"They're not going to do that!" Sara screamed and there was sudden silence. She didn't know if the kids thought she was a traitor or maybe a crazy person, maybe a little bit of both, she decided. "I mean… I already gave the bone marrow that Tsing took from me to Cage. I was with him outside just yesterday," she explained. "And I said that maybe I could find a way so we could all live in peace, so you guys would donate some of your marrow. It regenerates completely and they would be able to extract it painlessly and… and Cage said no."

"He said no because he knew that there aren't enough of you to help every single Mountain Man," Maya gave Sara the most probable answer.

"So what? It does regenerate…"

"And then what?" Maya asked again. "They take the marrow and they go outside and the Grounders kill them."

"Why are we even talking about this?" somebody asked, clearly pissed by now. "Who cares what they want with us?! We need to get out of here! Period!"

"And endanger them all by opening the door to the outside?" Sara asked, caring about the people she'd met so far inside the Mountain despite her better judgment, caring about Cage despite it all and she felt sick that she did. He lied to her in the worst way possible. How could he not tell her about her sister when he knew how much Sara missed Lily?

"Let's call it poetic justice," someone then said.

"What about Maya here?" Sara asked Jasper. "I know you care about her and you wouldn't just endanger her life like this."

"I can hide in a sector that the radiation won't reach," Maya assured her. "The point is that your people are already on their way here."

"Just let me set everything straight," Sara asked them when directing herself towards the door. "Let me get the answers we need before we make any final decision. There has to be an explanation to all of this!"

"Are you crazy? You can't go back to him! He'll kill you once he finds out that you're a threat!" Monty called after her.

"No, he won't," Sara said in a very sure voice and then just walked out of the room. She was so hurt. She felt betrayed on the worst level possible and she just wanted to understand why Cage had done it all to her. _Why_?! The most dreadful truth was that she would be able to get over the Mountain Men using the Grounders. Those two kinds of people hated each other and the Mountain Men were forced to use the Grounders' blood in order to survive and in return those actions kept the enemy from attacking. It wasn't really much different from what Sara's own people had been doing back on the Ark. If someone stole food because they were hungry, they were floated for it. Her own mother and father had died because of minor offences and then her sister had almost died, too. So yes, Sara could forgive Cage for using the Grounders. She believed there was some humanity left in him. She saw it and even Dante had told her so. Cage couldn't have acted all this time. Not when he was alone with her, not when he made love to her, when he was kissing her. She knew he had genuine feelings for her and maybe that was the exact reason to why nothing made any sense to her anymore. Maybe that was also the key to solving this problem.

Only one thing still remained. One thing was still unforgivable. Cage lying to her, lying to all the kids. Clarke had escaped and Sara hated to admit that the girl had been apparently right all that time.

Finally, Sara reached the command and wanted to knock at the door when the two guards standing there stopped her.

"What are you doing?" one of them asked. "You can't enter this room."

"I just want to talk to Cage Wallace," she said, not giving up that easily.

"Miss, we're sorry, but you have to…"

"Cage!" she yelled and managed to knock. "CAGE!"

The guards grabbed her and tried to drag her away from the room, from the hall, probably trying to get her to her room when the door opened and Cage looked out.

"Let her go," he said in a cold, impersonal voice.

"Cage, I need to talk to you. _Now_ ," she demanded when shrugging the guards' hands off and making her way to the younger Wallace. There was nothing familiar in his expression anymore, nothing soft and for a moment there she was truly terrified that he, indeed, had been playing her all that time.

"Come in," he just said with a sigh and actually moved back, so she could enter. It surprised her and she just stood there for a moment, but eventually she walked inside the room and the door closed behind her.

"Since you're here I get it that you know everything," Cage simply said when turning back to the monitors placed on the wall.

Sara didn't answer him at first, mesmerized by what she saw there. Monty and Jasper and everyone else were right. Their people were on the ground and right now she saw the satellite imagine of their camp.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she just asked, so tired of deceptions, so exasperated of trying to understand and failing to do so.

Cage turned to look at her again and she wasn't prepared to see the hurt expression on his face and in his eyes.

"I was afraid," he simply answered with a sour look on his face, his lips pressed tightly together. "I'm sorry," he added. "I am so, so sorry. I was afraid. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to lose you and then… then lies were piling up on top of lies and there was no way back from there."

"There's _always_ a way back. We _always_ have a choice," she pointed out, hating that she actually wanted to reach out to him and comfort him. He'd hurt her. He was the one to betray her and she wanted to make him feel better, to ease up his guilt! She was seriously messed up. Or maybe she was just in love, she realized.

"I'm sorry for everything," he continued. "You need to believe me when I say that I never wanted to hurt you any way. I never wanted any harm to come your way and for what actually happened to you, I apologize. You see, living underground for so long, in such a close community, it changes you. It doesn't leave many options. It's either kill or be killed sometimes. All we've ever done here, we've done it to survive, to preserve our species. We're not proud of those things, but we had no choice."

"Oh, spare me the lecture," she said, nearly snapping at him, tired of listening to his excuses.

Cage snorted and then added, "You know what? You're right. Screw that, screw excuses!" he raised his voice and spread his hands. "I wanted to make sure that _my_ people survived. I wanted to harvest your people's bone marrow by force and sentence them all to death, so _we_ could _all_ survive! And you know what happened then?! _You_! You happened!" he kept on yelling and she could only stand there, wide-eyed, listening to him finally being honest with her and seeing him showing her his true colors she already knew that he had. After all, she never dared ask what had happened to Lorelei. "I had my whole life planned out and then you turned it upside down! But I'm grateful for that," he added, surprising her once again. "I am grateful that you showed me another way. I'm just sorry that I lied to you so many times. I am truly sorry I hurt you, Sara. I just didn't want to lose you. I knew that once you found out about your people being on the ground, you would go see your sister and never come back. Why would you? Just till yesterday I was doomed to live in confinement and there was no future for us. If you don't want me to talk to you anymore, if you don't want me to touch you, I will understand and I will never bother you again. I just needed you to know all of that."

There was silence for a moment as she was processing his words.

And then Sara did something that surprised even her. She didn't know where it came from. She didn't know what possessed her to say it, but she knew one thing - she still cared about this man and if she could help him, then she would help her own people in the same time. There was no place for war in this world since there was so little of people left. If they didn't learn how to live together, how to share the big world they had, they would simply meet their end. They would keep killing each other and eventually they would cease to exist. It would only bring them pain and suffering and nothing more. And they needed to find a way to the light. They needed to finally reach some understanding, to reach peace. They needed to prove to themselves that all those hundreds years of evolution had not been for nothing. They couldn't keep repeating their ancestors' mistakes. The war needed to end before it would end them. And what Cage had just told her proved to her that not everything was lost. He was groping in the dark, torn between what he was taught and what he saw was right. He was torn between proceeding with the cruelty he'd been taught and the right way.

"Cage, don't you understand?" Sara then started. "I love you," she said for the very first time, stunning both him and herself. She didn't know she would say it until she actually did. "I wouldn't just leave you. It hurts me that you think I would. It hurts me that you think you mean so little to me when in fact you mean _everything_ ," her voice broke and she shed some tears. "If there was no way for you to live outside, I would gladly stay here with you, but then I donated my bone marrow so you could go out into the world with me. Don't you understand that I wanted to have a future with you? You could've gone to see my sister with me. You could've gone with me to my people and negotiate for peace."

For a moment there Cage didn't say anything to that, he was just too stunned to utter a word, but in the end he knew he shouldn't be as stupid as to think that now they could just kiss and make up and that everything would just go back to normal. It wouldn't. Sara might love him, but she hated him, too, now.

"And leave my people?" he finally asked. "Besides, we both know that there would be no peace negotiation. Your people are convinced that we hurt their kids. They would kill me the moment they saw me and we both know it. They wouldn't ask questions."

"Who do you think they are? The Grounders?" Sara asked, hurt by what he just said.

"No, but Clarke's with them right now and I'm sure she told them everything she thought of us. Why else would they be attacking us as we speak?" Cage asked.

"Wait… what?" Sara frowned. "What do you mean?"

"My father is talking to Clarke Griffin right now," Cage informed. "We let all the Grounders go, so the coalition your people had with them would break. We do want peace, Sara, and we're trying to get it right now, but I don't know what will come out of it."

"You-you what?" Sara felt fresh tears in her eyes. "Cage, why didn't you just tell me this right away? Are you and your father really trying to do this?"

"Yes," Cage admitted, careful not to find himself hope again. He was barely holding on as it was, talking to Sara, seeing the hatred and all those other conflicted emotions running through her face. It hurt him more than he'd expected it to.

"Let me talk to my people, then!" Sara said in excitement. "With my help it could all be over, Cage! We can really make this peace happen!"

"We?" he made sure he heard her right. "How can there be any we after everything I've done to you?" he asked, deciding that not knowing was worse than her telling him that she never wanted to have anything to do with him ever again.

"I forgive you," she then said the words he was sure he would never hear coming from her. They were melting his stone cold heart and he wasn't sure how to feel about this. Before she appeared in his life, he'd been ruthless and ready for about anything, even for sentencing all the Sky Kids to die, and now… now he just couldn't. Everything came down to this one woman who was now standing right in front of him. "Cage, I know that coming back from this place won't be easy, but as I said, I care about you too much to just let you go. I can't imagine my life without you. I'm too far gone." Then she felt silly to just confess all of that to him, including saying that she loved him, when he still didn't.

In that exact moment Cage's walkie-talkie came to life and he heard Clarke's angry voice, "You said you wanted peace!"

Cage stirred and grabbed the device, surprised by what he heard. Sara just frowned, once again suspecting that he'd just lied to her. And she wouldn't handle even one more lie.

"Clarke," Cage answered, "what do you mean?"

"You're extracting the bone marrow from my people as we speak! How could you do this to us?!"

"What? What are you talking about? I'm doing not such a thing!" Cage protested with shock on his face as he walked towards another set of monitors. "Oh my God…" he murmured under his nose.

"Cage? Cage, what is it?" Sara asked and walked over to him, looking at the image.

"Stop! Stop right now or I'll kill your father, Cage!" Clarke threatened and Cage's face turned completely white.

Because it was Lorelei Tsing in the harvest chamber. She was the one who'd apparently gathered enough of Mountain Men who thought that harvesting the bone marrow was the only way to overpower those who were inside with Clarke. And now Lorelei, her face disfigured completely from the radiation poisoning that had never managed to heal properly, was drilling into some girl's leg.

"You won't do it," Cage kept on speaking to Clarke as he couldn't possibly get through to Lorelei at the moment. "We can talk about it. This is really not what you think it is, Clarke. This woman is working all by herself."

"She's one of your people, so excuse me if I find it hard to believe," Griffin hissed.

Cage walked towards the door and spoke to one of the guards, but unfortunately before he managed to give him the order to stop Tsing, a shot went out and everything was suddenly quiet.

Sara was just standing there, her hands covering her mouth, disbelief in her eyes as she watched Cage's hand clenching over the walkie-talkie. Then he stumbled and needed to find purchase against the wall. They were all too stunned to say something, to do anything. Clarke Griffin just killed Dante Wallace, probably destroying any chance they had at peace.

Just like this, everything was over, Sara thought and she finally found herself able to move again and she said Cage's name in a hoarse tone, trying to get to him, but he was already gone.


	5. Chapter 5

**Part 05**

Cage felt like his whole world was spinning out of control and there was truly nothing he could do to stop it, to fix it. Everything was just lost. The peace was lost, too. How could he still want it after what Clarke had done to his father?! Before the shot went out, they could've still called it a misunderstanding. She should've given him more time to explain, to make it right. If she'd done just that, no one of the Sky People would die, no one would be exploited for the bone marrow. Now someone was dead and that someone was Cage's father. Needless to say, he wanted revenge. In fact, it was all he could think about. How could he let Sara blind him so much? How could he let himself get to this very point? He should've just done what he'd thought was right at the very beginning. He should've just overthrown his father and harvested the kids with no regard for Sara's feelings. He would lose her in the end either way. Even though she'd just confessed her love for him, he still should know better. They were from two completely different worlds and their loyalties didn't lie with each other, they lay with their people.

His father was dead. His father was dead. It didn't matter how long Cage would keep on repeating those words in his head. They still didn't make any sense. It was true that there were significant differences between the two Wallaces, but in the end they were family. And you took care of your family. Cage might've wanted to be in charge, but he'd never wanted the power at the expense of Dante's life. He even started to think that it was all his fault. He hadn't checked if Tsing was really dead once he'd exposed her to the radiation. She'd survived, probably having a stash of the Sky People's blood somewhere and she'd started gathering her own followers. Lying low in such a closed community as Mount Weather was hard, but finding people who would gladly kill the kids for their bone marrow wasn't. Cage was well aware of that fact.

He finally reached the harvest chamber with his people in tow and pushed the door open.

"Stop the drilling," he gave his command in a voice so cold and impersonal that even he himself was surprised by the sound of it. "Arrest her." He pointed his finger at Lorelei. "Wait, on second thoughts…" He simply grabbed a gun from one of the guards, aimed at Lorelei whose face was not only disgustingly disfigured but also terrified at the moment, and he shot her straight in the chest. She collapsed on the ground like a rag doll. Cage couldn't kill Clarke at the moment since she wasn't there, so he killed whom he could. Once he lowered the gun, there was silence not even interrupted by the screams of the imprisoned Sky People. And Cage felt absolutely nothing as he took Tsing's life. Nothing. Losing his father was painful enough and now he was just numb. Forcing himself not to feel anything was better than the opposite. Letting it all inside, letting the grief into his heart, it was just too much and he couldn't possibly take it. Not now and maybe not ever. Losing his own humanity seemed like a better choice, otherwise the pain would blind him completely and he would break down. He couldn't allow himself to be weak. He had to be strong and ruthless now. He was the president and he needed to help his people through harvesting the needed bone marrow now.

The silence dragged on and the prisoners stopped struggling against the ties and handcuffs that kept them in place, confused by what was happening. Eventually, Cage brought himself to speak to his walkie-talkie again.

"Clarke, are you there?" he asked when finally having localized her mother.

"I'm here," the girl answered after a long period of silence, her voice broken.

"I want you to know that you shot my father for nothing. I _was_ telling you the truth. I did not give the order to attack your people. The woman who did it went against me and my father. In the end we really didn't want to hurt you. We wanted to try and make peace with you. Now it's too late. You started a war, Clarke. _You_ did it. And now you're going to watch your mother suffer just like you made my father."

"Wait… no!" Clarke screamed, her voice growing desperate.

"Clarke!" Abigail Griffin called out to her daughter when struggling against the ties that held her.

"No, please!" some man screamed. Maybe he was Clarke's mother's husband, maybe a friend, Cage didn't know and didn't care. "Stop! There has to be another way! We can donate! We can still donate!"

Cage ignored him and gave the command to take the young girl from the table and place Abby there instead.

"No, please!" Clarke kept on trying to convince Cage. "Please, don't do this! Punish _me_! I was the one who made a mistake! Not my people!"

"You punished my father instead of going after me," Cage pointed out and ordered his people to prepare themselves for harvesting Clarke's mother's bone marrow.

In that moment the door burst open again, this time showing Sara.

When Cage's and her eyes met, something actually stirred inside of him. And he hated that. He suddenly hated the impact, the influence she seemed to still have on him. If he hadn't pursued her, his father would've still been alive, he suddenly thought bitterly and turned his back to her.

"Cage, don't do this!" she tried to convince him. "Please, just don't do this!"

"It's too late," he simply said.

"Look at me! Why won't you just look me in the eye?! Cage!" She wasn't giving up. "Cage, you can still do the right thing here! Your father got caught in the crossfire and for that I'm so very sorry, but this is not the way! I thought you knew that! It'll only lead you towards destruction and suffering. Please, stop!"

"No," he simply said in an ice-cold voice and Sara felt her heart breaking. She'd been fighting so hard to believe in him, to be with him. She'd been fighting so hard for his soul and for their relationship, but in the end she was the only one left fighting. He'd already given up. He didn't believe that they could ever be together, didn't believe they could make this work and it hurt her because it meant that he didn't care as much about her as she'd thought he did. Maybe he wanted her simply because she was someone new and fresh, someone he hadn't known all his life unlike all the people in Mount Weather. Maybe that was why.

Then Sara's and doctor Griffin's eyes met. The woman was just about to be put on the table and Sara didn't want that to happen. There were a lot of people who'd treated her badly on the Ark, but Abigail had always been kind to her. Once she'd actually caught Sara stealing food for her sister and she hadn't reported that, she'd let her go instead. Sara did not forget such kindness. Suddenly, she knew what she had to do. She realized that it might backfire and she might end up dead, but when she thought of a life she could have out there without Cage, even if she was to have it with her sister, something inside her broke and she couldn't stand the very thought of that. He might be ruthless, he might not be a good man, after all, but her feeling towards him were so intense that she couldn't breathe when thinking they might end up apart. That he might end up dead or her mortal enemy. She didn't want to live in a world like that. She knew she was being stupid, but that was exactly what love usually did to a person, wasn't it? One started thinking with their heart, not mind. Sara could easily give her life for him if only it meant that she would save his soul. And she believed he was savable. She believed that if he was truly evil, she wouldn't have fallen for him. He was ridden by grief right now and she was sure that he would very soon regret having killed her people.

That was why Sara rushed to the table and lay down on it, preventing the guards from placing Abigail Griffin there.

"If you want to drill," she found herself saying as Cage finally acknowledged her again and now was looking at her with a stunned expression on his face, maybe even panic, "you're gonna have to start with me," she informed him. "Come on, end this. _Kill me_ , Cage. You obviously don't care about me, because if you did, you wouldn't do this."

Cage was speechless. He could just stand there, frozen, staring into Sara's blue eyes. He couldn't comprehend what she was about to do. Why would she? Was this really worth dying for? What more, was this really worth dying for while being tortured? She'd had her bone marrow extracted once. She knew how painful it was without sedation and now she was just willing to give him the whole thing and die in the process? She was willing to die for peace. She was willing to die for… _him_ , he realized, wide-eyed and suddenly the wall he'd managed to built around his heart, broke and all the emotions were let inside once again. The pain of losing his father, the pain of letting Sara go. _Everything_.

A doctor walked over to Sara with a drill ready in his hand and her eyes filled up with tears again as she kept on looking at Cage. And then Cage realized with embarrassing horrification that he was breaking down, that he had tears in his eyes, too, and that his whole body was shaking. The Sky People couldn't truly understand what was happening, but they must've known by now that something was between Sara and Cage and maybe it was the only thing that could actually safe them. Love could safe them. Love that was capable of uniting two completely different people. Love which didn't choose. It just struck and once it did find its target, all the common sense was gone and the feelings were taking over, overwhelming the couple completely and giving them the kind of happiness they'd never thought was possible. Giving them _hope_.

The doctor turned on the drill and that finally broke Cage and Sara's eye contact.

"STOP!" he screamed when he saw the drill being put dangerously close to the body of the woman he obviously loved. "Stop for a God's sake!" he repeated and there was silence once again as he pushed the man aside and got to Sara, cupping her face and looking at her again, so relieved that she was unharmed and so embarrassed by what he'd been about to do. By what he would've done if she hadn't showed up. "I'm sorry," he whispered, so she would be the only one to hear him. "I'm so, so sorry…" To his mortification, he actually started sobbing. "I'm sorry," he repeated and Sara sat up on the table and put her arms around him, embracing him, giving him the comfort he so desperately needed as he was just crying in her arms now. Maybe crying for the first time since his mother had died.

"And I am sorry for your father," she said when rubbing his back and crying herself just because he was suffering and she couldn't do anything to make it better, she could only be there for him. "Let them all go," she told the guards and for a moment they hesitated whether they should listen to her, but eventually, when they didn't hear a word of protest from Cage, they began releasing the prisoners.

And it was then that Marcus Kane, angry for what had almost happened to Abby, moved purposefully towards Cage.

"Stop that!" Sara yelled and was forced to release Cage from her arms as she jumped off the table and stood between Kane and the man she loved. "I won't let you hurt him!"

Cage didn't move, horrified by having been weak in front of everyone, in front of both his people and those who didn't even know him. He wasn't sure which was worse, but he did know that it wasn't the right tactic and that he'd made a mistake he couldn't possibly take back now. He didn't know what to say or what to do. He didn't know how to get back from this place.

"Marcus, she's right," Abigail came over to Kane and placed her hand on his shoulder. "My…" her voice broke, "my daughter just caused another unnecessary death," she finally finished and Sara wondered what Clarke had done after she'd escaped from Mount Weather. "She-she killed this man's father while they were negotiating for peace. Just-just let it go, all right?"

"Then who was this woman who just wanted to kill us all?" Marcus asked. "How could she not be working for them?"

"I think it's my fault," Sara said and finally, Cage joined her when having pulled himself together.

"No, it is mine. She was a threat to Sara," he said when putting his arm around the girl, "and to your people. I thought I dealt with her, but apparently she survived. I am truly sorry for her actions."

"Mom," they suddenly heard Clarke's trembling voice as the younger Griffin just stood in the door. She didn't dare look Cage in the eye. "Mom, I'm so sorry," she sobbed and Abigail got to her to hug her. "I-I didn't mean to… I didn't know…"

"It's ok, baby, we'll deal with it. It's going to be ok," Abby tried to calm her daughter down when hugging her.

Cage didn't even bother looking in Clarke's direction, still holding a grudge against her, still hating her for what she'd done.

"I am truly sorry for what happened to your father," Marcus Kane suddenly said. "We should've never let Clarke take over the negotiations. She was the only one who held the alliance with the Grounders together and we thought… since she was here before…"

"Alliance with the Grounders?" Cage picked up on that. "And how's that one going?" he asked sarcastically.

"Broken. By you," Kane pointed out.

"I released the Grounders we kept in here, so there would be no war," Cage explained. "And then I actually tried to avoid fighting again when talking to you."

"I know, I know…" Marcus admitted, shaking his head. "Maybe we should just… start over. Maybe we should stop killing each other and just move on… Sara, please explain what you were doing on the ship in the first place," Kane then turned to the woman, surprised by her presence there. "You weren't even put in confinement."

"But my sister was," she admitted. "And I'm not sure how much I can actually tell you."

"You can tell me anything since Rhodes died on his way down to the ground. He was on one of the two dropships that exploded when entering the earth atmosphere," Marcus followed with an explanation.

"I see that you already know enough to figure out the rest. Did my sister tell you all of this?" Sara wanted to know with a frown. "Is she…?" She couldn't possibly finish this question. She didn't know if she could deal with…

"She's fine. In fact, she's back in the camp, waiting for you," she received in answer.

"Oh, thank God!" Sara released a long held breath of relief and then felt Cage's arm tightening around her.

"When things get settled down," Marcus directed to Cage, "we can talk about donating the bone marrow. Sara is right, there is no point in killing each other. We can live in peace and helping you would be the least we can do after what Clarke has done."

Cage could only nod at Kane since he didn't seem to be able to speak for any longer. Then Kane just walked over to relay the information to his people and to tell them that they could all come back home.

As they all gathered, ready to leave, Sara just stood there, unsure of what she should do next.

"What are you doing?" Cage asked her in surprise. "Go with them. Your sister's waiting for you."

"I know, but I don't really want to leave you here," she confessed when grasping his hand and looking him in the eye. "I almost lost you today and then I almost died. I don't want to go alone and you can actually walk outside now. Your war with the Grounders is over. You have nothing to be afraid of, Cage."

"You really want me to go with you?" he seemed surprised that she even suggested that.

"Yes, Cage, I do," she confirmed with a nod of her head. "The truth is that I don't feel like I belong to any of these people. I don't feel like a Sky Person, I never really felt at home on the Ark. I'm not one of your people either. The only sense of belonging I have is when it comes to my sister and… now you," she confessed when reaching for his face. "Wherever you go, I go," she said. "I will stay here if it means staying with you. Well, if you have me, of course," she added on the realization that she might be coming too hard on him. She always seemed to be the one to tell him that she loved him, the one to make a commitment to him whereas he didn't.

Only then he actually smiled to her. "Of course. You have no idea how happy this makes me and I know I don't deserve any of it."

"Nonsense. Everyone deserves to be loved just like everyone deserves a second chance. This is yours."

"Sara, we're going," Marcus came over to them and then he turned to Cage, "if you're willing to come with us and negotiate the peace agreement, we'll be glad to have you," he informed him. "There was enough of bloodshed and I feel like we really need to make it up to you as soon as possible."

Cage only nodded in response, his hand gently squeezing Sara's and then he turned to his guards to give them orders.

Finally, after appointing a temporary replacement of his when making sure the man was all for having peace, Cage walked out of the bunker with the Sky People and they directed themselves to Jaha Camp.

* * *

They were all silent the whole way to the camp as there was really nothing left to say. Sara was quite anxious to finally hear from Cage what it was that he felt for her, but she knew it wasn't the best time for that. He was mourning his father and just now was travelling to his former enemy's camp. It was a lot to take in as for one day. The idea of the war finally coming to an end alone was overwhelming.

Eventually, they spotted the camp in the distance and Sara took a closer look as she hadn't actually been there before. She'd already heard about what Clarke had done that Abigail had referred to in the bunker. Finn was dead, killed by Clarke herself in order to spare him tortures from the Grounders' side and to keep the alliance between those two people. And all of that was for nothing now, Sara thought somberly as the Grounders had disappeared, in the end not helping the Sky People at all since they couldn't possibly benefit from the alliance anymore.

"Still feeling like you're not home?" Cage asked Sara and she looked at him with a smile on her face.

"I am home right now. In fact, I'm always home when I'm with the people… I care about," she quickly said instead of love since she was sick of telling him that she loved him when she didn't hear it back. Seriously, couldn't he just tell her already if he'd already made it so clear with his actions?!

"No! Lincoln, don't!" they suddenly heard Octavia's scream and before they realized what was happening, an angry Grounder charged them and Sara watched in horrification as the tip of his sword sunk in Cage's stomach. "DON'T!" Octavia screamed again, but apparently Lincoln wasn't listening.

Sara covered her mouth with her hands, going into shock, feeling her whole body stilling and then she started to tremble. She could only watch wide-eyed as Lincoln retracted his sword stained with Cage's blood and just then the guards finally managed to get to him and subdue him. All too late.

"Don't kill him!" Octavia now switched to trying to save her boyfriend's life whereas Sara got to the ground right after her own.

"Cage!" she screamed his name frantically when placing his head on her laps and cupping his face. "No! Cage! Cage! Hold on! NOOOO!" She couldn't yet comprehend what just happened. She couldn't understand. One moment she was so happy, she was actually going to see her sister. She wondered what Lily would think of Cage once Sara introduced them and then she thought of the amazing life they were going to have. They were on the ground. They could both go outside. They were happy.

Not anymore. Now the man Sara loved was bleeding out in her arms.

"No! Please, no!" she kept on screaming when finally conscious enough to press her hands against his wound, trying to stop the already profuse bleeding. "Don't leave me," she started sobbing.

Abigail Griffin quickly got to them and replaced Sara's hands on Cage's stomach, assessing his injuries and Sara just kept on stroking his hair now. He started coughing out some blood and then desperately tried to say something when staring into her eyes. He finally opened his mouth and she heard the words she wanted to hear so desperately. "I love you." He felt cold and terrified. He knew he was dying and he couldn't possibly leave her without telling her how he really felt. "I love you… I love you…" he kept on repeating while he still could.

"I love you, too. Please, Cage, please, don't give up! Fight! Fight to stay alive! You need to stay alive!" Sara begged him when sobbing and then she pressed her lips against his forehead, wincing as she was in pain, too. She couldn't lose him. She just couldn't. "I love you too much. Please, don't die," she whispered to him one more time and then he closed his eyes. "No! No! Don't you dare die!" she screamed again.

"We need to get him to medical immediately," she then heard Abigail's commanding voice.

"You mean he's still alive?" Sara asked with feeble hope in her voice.

"For now," Griffin nodded. "I'll do whatever I can. I promise you that much."

Kane with the assistance of Wick took Cage and started transporting him to the camp whereas Abby kept pressing onto the wound.

Sara just sat there on the ground, dazed and stained with blood. She couldn't seem to catch her breath. She was crashed by everything she'd experienced that day and she thought that it should be enough. She was done hurting and suffering. She was just done! She'd been doing that ever since she'd been born. She'd lost her parents and then she'd nearly lost her sister as well. She'd been forced to spend a night with Chancellor Rhodes and then survive on earth where she'd eventually found herself captured by a probable enemy. Next, she'd experienced a few moments of true happiness in the arms of the man who was now dying. Maybe he was already dead, she didn't know. His injuries seemed to be too extensive. What Abigail could really do in their camp? They should've probably transported Cage back to Mount Weather where there was a proper medical unit, but then again, the trip itself would kill him for sure.

"I'm sorry," Sara suddenly heard Clarke's voice. "Cage turned Lincoln into a reaper and that is why he wanted to kill him. I just thought you should know the reason." The blonde then placed her hand on Sara's shoulder and the woman just nodded in response, actually understanding even though it still hurt like hell. She knew what Cage had used to do to the Grounders not so long ago, she knew what all the Mountain Men had been doing. And now it was all finally catching up with them.

"Sara?" she suddenly heard a voice which was so dear to her that only this person could get through to her at the moment, to get through all the pain clouding Sara's mind.

"Lily?" she asked and looked up, seeing her sister there. "Oh my God, Lily!" Then Sara was on her feet , hugging her sister tightly and crying hysterically. "Lily, you're all right!"

"You're, too!"

"No, no I am not."

* * *

 **AN:** There's still one more chapter to go, but at this point you can safely watch the amazing video to this story that I've made.

Sara & Cage - I Will Burn With You (the song gave the me the idea for the tile, by the way!)

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Youtube

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watch?v=Bf96dtPbeJc

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Full link in my profile


	6. Chapter 6

**Part 06**

No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't get the blood off of her hands. Cage's blood. She couldn't rid of the image of him dying in her arms. Of him spitting blood and telling her that he loved her. If he died, it would be the last thing he'd ever said to her. It made for the perfect goodbye with no actual regrets. All the things they wanted to say to each other, all that they wanted to make clear, they'd achieved. But she refused to let it end like this. She wanted more. A couple of weeks spent in Mount Weather, marred with accidents and manipulations she didn't want to remember, wasn't enough for her. She needed more. She needed a whole lifetime. After everything Sara had been through, she deserved more. She deserved to have a life by the side of the man she loved.

She still saw everything in red. She didn't pay any attention to the camp she found herself in since her thoughts were occupied by something else. She was worried sick and the fact that Cage was screaming so loudly on the operation table at the moment didn't make it better. It should've, at least she was sure he was still alive, that he kept on fighting while Abby was performing the surgery, but she just couldn't stand him screaming like this. She wanted to be there for him, she wanted to hold his hand, but doctor Griffin needed to preserve as sterile environment for the operation as possible. At least until the wound would be sewn up.

At the moment even the presence of Lily right next to Sara didn't make it better. Her sister was sitting right by her side, her arms put around her tightly as she was trying to give her as much comfort as she could. Still, it wasn't enough. Nothing was enough anymore. The only thing that could soothe Sara's pain right now was the knowledge that Cage would be all right, that he would pull through, survive the worst. Just because he was alive now didn't mean that it would stay that way.

* * *

In the meantime, Kane was interrogating Lincoln in the confinement, being furious with the Grounder.

"I did what I thought was right," Lincoln actually dared say and Marcus just glared at him.

"Do you have _any idea_ what you've really done?" he spat out when throwing his hands into the air. "Without Wallace, we won't have peace with Mount Weather! Their bunker is a fortress and without your people's help, we will never get inside without an invitation! If they find out that their leader is dead… scratch that! If they even find outthat we nearly killed their leader, they'll launch an attack on us! They have a silos, Lincoln! If they want, they can level this whole camp with the ground!"

"Well, then it's only convenient that I'm not a Sky Person, isn't it?" Lincoln just asked, not caring about what Marcus was telling him at all. "If the worst happens, I will answer for what I did and I will tell them that you had nothing to do with it."

"Oh, really?" Marcus just snorted. "And what about Octavia? Did you even think of her when you did that? Did you think at all? Or were you just doing what you, Grounders, do best? You keep on fighting and killing and hating each other!" Kane screamed.

"He turned me into a reaper!" Lincoln also raised his voice now. "I just wanted to cause him the same kind of agony that he caused me!"

"I don't care!" Marcus roared and was met with Lincoln's murderous look. "You know," he then added in a quieter voice, "I wonder how your people managed to survive for so long when all you do is fight. You believe that you can only stop fighting with death, but this is not the way. You can have peace while you live."

"Says a Sky Person who never really knew real life until he got to the ground," Lincoln just answered.

"It doesn't matter where we live, Lincoln," Marcus said when directing himself to the exit, "life is real everywhere and it's always hard. If you thing living in space was idyllic, you're wrong. It was actually worse than living on the ground." Then he finally left, closing the door behind him and nodding towards the guards, so they would keep an eye on the prisoner.

"Kane!" he immediately heard Octavia and then she was right there by his side. "What are you going to do with him?"

"Not now," Marcus brushed her off, directing himself to the medical.

"Please, I need to know… You can't execute him… He was just…"

"Not now!" Kane yelled once again and left the girl in the hall whereas he went to see Abby.

As it turned out, she just finished her surgery.

"How is he?" Marcus asked when making his way to Griffin. "Is he still…?"

"He's alive," Abby confirmed when wiping the sweat from her forehead. "But it was a difficult operation, Marcus. I'm still worried he may not pull through. He passed out and we won't know more until he wakes up."

"We have to keep him alive. We have to save him," Kane said. "Right now Cage is the only person who holds this peace together."

"It's kind of like what you said about Clarke before," Abigail pointed out when getting out of the protective wear she had on her clothes.

"In meant it then and I mean it now."

"Marcus, do you actually see a way out of this situation? If he doesn't report back to his people, they'll come looking for him and once they see him like this…" Abby just shook her head, her voice trailing off. "How can this peace ever last?"

"Through bone marrow donation," Marcus said in confidence. "It's our only bargaining chip. In exchange we'll receive shelter for the winter, we'll get food and actual beds to sleep in."

"I get it and I want it, too. I'm just afraid that if we don't get him back to Mount Weather, if we don't get him to the kind of a medical unit he really needs, he'll die."

"Where is he?! Is he all right?!" they suddenly heard Sara's terrified voice as she was now standing in the door. "He stopped screaming…" she said in a shaky voice. In fact, her whole body was trembling. If Cage was dead… She knew this love would eventually crash and burn her. She just knew it and it was happening right now. They were doomed just as Cage always thought. "I couldn't stand him screaming like that, but then-then the screaming stopped and I'm-I'm just so afraid that he's…"

"It's all right," Abby spoke in a soothing voice when coming over to the younger woman and putting her hands on her shoulders. "Cage is alive. He's just unconscious now. He survived the operation, but I'm afraid we need to get him back to Mount Weather as soon as possible."

"Why are you just standing here, then?" Sara asked the perfect question. She was both relieved that Cage was alive and anxious that they weren't doing anything to keep him that way.

"I'm still not sure we should move him just yet," Abigail explained slowly. "He needs a few hours before we can do that. Also," she shot Marcus a worried look, but then said it anyway, "we're afraid that once his people see him wounded, they'll kill us and start the war all over again."

"They won't. They want our bone marrow, so they need to…"

"They don't need peace in order to get it, Sara," Kane explained carefully, "they can just take it since they're stronger than us. We have no Grounders on our side anymore."

"Ok, ok," Sara just said, processing those words and doing her best to keep her blood cold, to actually think and not let the emotions cloud her judgment. _Think, Sara, think._ "When will he wake up?" she asked.

"It's up to him, really," Abigail informed.

"Ok, then once he does, Raven will contact Mount Weather and he'll simply talk to his people. He's still in charge. He'll explain the situation and then we'll bring him there."

"But will he want to explain it?" Marcus asked which according to him was a very good question.

"Yes," Sara answered with no hesitation. "He will. He knows what he's done. He's well aware that Lincoln had a reason for attacking him and I'm sure that as long as you keep Lincoln away from Cage, there'll be no problem. Can I see him now, please? I just need to see him."

"Yes, of course," Abby agreed, letting her through. "Let me know as soon as he wakes up."

"Sure."

"What are we going to do with Lincoln?" Griffin then asked Kane. "It's just such a mess, Marcus. We can't let Wallace and Clarke meet and now we have to keep him away from Lincoln as well."

"We can't possibly execute him," Marcus decided. "What will make us? We came down to the ground, promising that we would stop killing people. There is enough room on this earth for all of us, so I think that we should just banish Lincoln."

"What about the girl, Octavia?" Abby followed, thinking about the proposition.

"It's up to her what she'll do. She's free."

"If we banish him, she'll go with him and don't forget that she has a brother here."

"Abby, it's really up to them to figure it out all. We can't keep anyone here. They're free to leave anytime they want."

Griffin just nodded. "All right. What about Clarke, then?"

"I don't think Wallace will like to stay in this camp anyway," Marcus just said, "and I do believe that Clarke knows what she's done and that she's learnt her lesson. She's already proved it to us by showing her remorse. Lincoln, on the other hand, doesn't regret anything."

"All right. Let's do this," Abby finally agreed.

* * *

Sara had been already sitting by Cage's side for about three hours and he still hadn't woken up. She was actually pretty scared by now. She was afraid she could still lose him. Just because he'd survived for so long didn't mean that he would pull through in the end. Although if he didn't, it would seem like such a waste. He'd already been through so much pain since the moment he'd been stabbed by Lincoln that he needed to keep on fighting, so this pain wouldn't go to waste. Of course she told him that. She kept talking to him, telling him a lot of things. She told him to fight, to wake up, so they could have the life they wanted together. She kept imagining what that life would be like even though she was hurting more and more with every word leaving her mouth. She just didn't want to let herself hope for this bright future if she wasn't sure she would have the chance to actually live it.

Eventually, she ran out of things to say and she just held his hand in one of hers and kept on stroking his hair with the other. Raven had already brought the radio to the medical and they could contact Mount Weather immediately. All they needed was for Cage to wake up.

Suddenly, Sara thought that she felt his hand squeezing hers a little, but she still wasn't sure if she didn't actually imagine it happening.

"Cage?" she asked tentatively when looking at his face. "Cage, can you hear me? Wake up."

This time she couldn't possibly make a mistake. He did squeeze her hand and after a moment he finally managed to open his eyes, looking into hers in slight confusion.

"You're all right. You're alive," she told him with tears in her eyes as she cupped his face. He opened his mouth to say something, but then he stopped and winced. "You want some water?" Soon, there was a bottle pressed against his parched lips and he drunk it all with appreciation.

Then he just asked, "Are we out of the woods yet?" with a smile on his face.

And Sara couldn't help but reciprocate this smile and then she leaned towards him to kiss him. Yes, she could feel it in her heart now - they would be all right. Everything would be all right despite all the obstacles.

* * *

While Cage was recovering in the medical unit in Mount Weather, the Sky People were slowly donating their bone marrow, so the Mountain Men could join them outside. Eventually, every single one of them would be able to walk out, to enjoy the fresh air, the beauty of nature, the sun and the moon. Eventually, they would all make new friends and even start mixing together. Sara and Cage were only the first ones to enter a relationship and after them, many would follow. The Grounders were still out there in the woods, but they were too afraid to actually attack in fear of the weapons both the Sky People and the Mountain Men possessed when united.

In the end, Sara would stay with Cage in the bunker while their people would slowly begin building an actual city. A year later Sara would get pregnant and they would start their own family, leaving all the pain from the past behind them. They would build an amazing life together and they would finally be happy.

 **The end**

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 **AN:  
** There are videos for this story. Go to my profile.


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